Following a recent ransomware attack on Capcom's internal systems by the Ragnar Locker group of hackers, some of the alleged 1TB of data has been leaked to 4chan after Capcom apparently refused to meet their demands.
While these leaks always have to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially now that Capcom can react to the information being public and change plans accordingly, there are still a lot of interesting nuggets.
The headline attraction is probably the Resident Evil Village release date. We already knew it was coming next year, but the leak narrows it down to late April, which is not far off at all. It looks like you might be able to get your hands on a slice beforehand, however, as a demo will appear first, though PS5 players will get it before everyone else.
Like Resident Evil 3 Remake, it looks like Village will launch with a separate online element, codenamed Dominion. The leak doesn't provide any other details on Dominion, but hopefully it fares better than Resi 3's Resistance spin-off. There's mention of a VR version Resident Evil 4, too, which will apparently be an Oculus exclusive. Like Village, it's got an April release date. The calendar also shows May as the tentative release date for the recently announced Resident Evil Netflix series Infinite Darkness.
OK, zombies are out of the way, so let's move onto the monsters. Monster Hunter: Rise and Monster Hunter Stories 2, both announced for Nintendo Switch during a Nintendo Direct Mini back in September, will supposedly get a PC release. Monster Hunter Stories 2 on PC will launch simultaneously with the Switch version in June 2021 and receive both free and paid DLC. Monster Hunter Rise, the official sequel to Monster Hunter World, featuring new monsters, new locales and a wolf you can ride around on, is supposed to release on PC in October 2021. Given the massive success of Monster Hunter: World and Iceborne, a PC port was probably a no-brainer.
The leak also includes a translated document on a new game, codenamed Shield. It's a shooter featuring a campaign and several multiplayer modes, including raids, survival and base defense. A PC demo planned for September 2021 can be seen in a leaked image of the business plan, with the launch expected in March 2022. One unintentionally funny bit of the leak sees the Shield team figure out that streaming is the done thing for marketing these days and set up a plan for community building by hiring a popular streamer. The slide notes that "contract fees are extremely high and it's likely that the streamer will stop playing as soon as the contract expires", and that it would be more efficient to use "mid-tier streamers actively trying to attract more followers" and turn them into long-term ambassadors.
If you want to have a look at the translated slides, check out this Reddit post and recent tweets by @pokeprotos. Both compile all the info currently available. Capcom has since reacted to the leak with an official press release, which details that apart from sales reports and financial information, the hackers could also have obtained information of 14,000 customers at the North American Capcom store, as well as the names, addresses and gender of 4,000 users of Capcom's esports operations in the US. Capcom stresses once again that no credit card data has been compromised, since the company tasks a third-party provider with processing all sales made on the Capcom store. If you think you could be affected, contact the US Capcom customer support.
According to the press release, Capcom doesn't expect major damage to come from the leak: "Presently, while the company believes that any effect from this incident on the Capcom Group's consolidated business results (for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021) will be negligible, the company will swiftly make an announcement in the case that any further disclosure is necessary."
