James Ratcliff joined Game Rant in 2022 as a Gaming News Writer. In 2023, James was offered a chance to become an occasional feature writer for different games and then a Senior Author in 2025. He is a third-generation Texan who has written professionally for over a decade at local newspapers, addressing various topics for his readers. Since 2024, James has shifted his complete focus to covering gaming news.
A hacker group called ShadowByt3$ issued a $2 million ransom to Nintendo after the group claimed that it had breached and stolen approximately 859 MB of survey data, including names, email addresses, and bank statements. Days after the hacking ransom was issued, Nintendo has responded to the claims and stated that no personal consumer data was accessed.
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Nintendo Pours Cold Water Over $2 Million Data Ransom Demand
🚨Cyber Alert ‼️ 🇯🇵Japan – 𝗡𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼 SHADOWBYT3$ claims to have breached Nintendo, allegedly stealing approximately 859 MB of data from TINYpulse systems. The claimed dataset includes employee names, email addresses, surveys, analytics reports, bank statement PDFs, W-9 forms, workplace feedback, etc.
— Hackmanac (@hackmanac.com) 2026-06-13T20:07:24.925Z
Nintendo has been the target of hackers before, and now the company found itself the target again. As posted by Hacmanac on Bluesky, the TinyPulse survey service that Nintendo of America (NoA) uses to conduct internal employee surveys was allegedly compromised by ShadowByt3$. The hacking group stated it had stolen nearly 1GB of data, including employee names and emails, surveys, financial forms, and reports from 2016 to 2026. ShadowByt3$ then demanded Nintendo pay a $2 million ransom by June 15 to avoid a data leak. However, Nintendo of America responded to the hack and stated that it was working with TinyPulse to address the breach. Though the company acknowledged the situation, Nintendo stated that its systems were not compromised by ShadowByt3$. NoA said that no personal consumer or financial data was accessed.
Source: NintendoLife
