Game Freak’s action RPG Beast of Reincarnation has reportedly leaked online, with pirates playing through the game three days ahead of its official August 4, 2026 release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, as reported by Kotaku.
The leak surfaced through piracy-centric communities including the DODI Repacks Discord server and the r/Piracy and r/PiratedGames subreddits, per Kotaku. The exact vector remains unconfirmed, though some have suggested it may be related to preloading the game on Steam. Neither Game Freak nor publisher Fictions had officially commented on the alleged leak at the time of reporting.
This is not an isolated incident. According to Kotaku, Beast of Reincarnation is among several high-profile titles – including Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight and Forza Horizon 6 – that have made their way into pirates’ hands before their official release dates this year. In the case of Forza Horizon 6, Microsoft mistakenly uploaded roughly 155 GB of unencrypted game files to Steam, which were noticed almost immediately and led to pirated versions appearing across multiple sites, as reported by Ars Technica. A 2024 study of Denuvo-protected titles estimated that being cracked within the first week of release correlates with an average 20 percent reduction in total revenue, and Ars Technica notes the potential economic impact is likely even higher for pre-release cracks.
Early performance reports from players claiming to have accessed the leaked build are mixed. One user reportedly tested the game on an ROG Ally X and described stable performance in the opening area at 1080p medium settings with TAAU, with frame rates holding between 30 and 40 FPS without significant stuttering. A separate report on high-end PC hardware – a 9800X3D paired with an RTX 5070 Ti – described 70 to 80 FPS average at 4K maximum settings with DLSS Ultra Quality and no frame generation option visible. As Kotaku notes, these reports come from a pirated copy, so performance figures should be treated with caution.
What remains unclear is how the pirated build was obtained in the first place. Some have suggested a connection to Steam preloading, though neither Game Freak nor Fictions had officially commented on the alleged leak at the time of reporting.
What to watch: The August 4 official launch is the next milestone, and it remains to be seen what impact, if any, the early leak will have on the game’s reception.
Has a pre-release leak ever changed whether you bought a game at launch? And do you think platform holders like Valve need to rethink how preloads are handled given the frequency of these incidents?
