Pokémon maker confirms it was victim of hack The Pokémon CompanyPokémon is one of the world's best-known entertainment brands Pokémon maker Game Freak has confirmed it was the victim of a data leak after information appeared online over the weekend. The company, which has developed the Nintendo-exclusive video game series since 1996, said its servers were hacked in August this year. A statement said 2,606 items containing the names and email addresses of current, former and contract employees were accessed. The company did not comment on other information shared online claiming to show details of unreleased and upcoming projects. Game Freak said it would individually contact those affected where possible, and strengthen security measures to prevent similar hacks in future.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are suing the company behind the game, which fans dubbed "Pokémon with guns," for patent infringement. Palworld, colloquially known to fans as " Pokémon with guns," is in hot water. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced Thursday that they've filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Tokyo against Pocketpair, the company behind the game, claiming "infringes multiple patent rights." In, players catch creatures by weakening them and trapping them in Pal Spheres, similar to Poké Balls. Fans have also pointed out numerous similarities in design between Pals and Pokémon.

Palworld "infringes multiple patent rights", Nintendo and The Pokémon Company said in statements posted on their websites. "This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages". Palworld has become a major hit, with more than 25 million players within a month of its release. Pocketpair's website describes the game as seamlessly integrating "elements of battle, monster-capturing, training, and base building." Players, known as "pal-tamers", travel around a large map battling human foes and creatures known as "pals" which can be captured and recruited.

While several fans might feel slighted by Ash's exclusion in the series going forward, the far more revealing exclusion lies in Pikachu. Pikachu is easily the most iconic Pokémon of all time, and Nintendo and the Pokémon Company have heavily leaned into it as their mascot through several avenues. In fact, the Pokémon Company at one point felt that having a dedicated mascot for the franchise was so important that they needed it to become a duopoly. This is most evident by their push to make Eevee a co-mascot via the "Let's Go Pikachu" and "Let's Go Eevee" games. Some fans believe the thought process was that Eevee might be a counterpart that young girls could connect with more, as Pikachu represented more traits that young boys would connect with.

This morning, Ford announced driving assist tech that can better compete with GM's Super Cruise and Tesla's Autopilot, but there's some bad news -- Active Drive Assist won't arrive until late 2021. The electric Mustang Mach-E crossover is its first vehicle where customers can order Co-Pilot360 2.0 features and a "prep package" of hardware that will be ready for an over-the-air software update to add hands-free driving tech later. Researchers have found a way to turn simple line drawings into photo-realistic facial images. Developed by a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, DeepFaceDrawing uses artificial intelligence to help "users with little training in drawing to produce high-quality images from rough or even incomplete freehand sketches." It doesn't require the same level of detail in source sketches that previous AI iterations needed, and it works largely through probability -- instead of requiring detailed eyelid or lip shapes, for example, the software refers to a database of faces and facial components and considers how each facial element works with others.