The Pokémon Company is investigating Palworld and the potential for IP violation

[Daniel Sims]

A hot potato: The developers of Palworld have been accused of plagiarizing Pokémon since the game's explosive launch last week. The company that owns Pokémon recently confirmed its awareness of the situation, but analysis from legal experts suggests that a lawsuit might not be an open-and-shut case.

The Pokémon Company issued an official statement in response to the controversy surrounding the recent hit release, Palworld, which bears strong visual similarities to Nintendo's monster-training franchise. The likelihood of any legal proceedings remains unclear.

In a boilerplate announcement, the Pokémon Company acknowledged receiving numerous inquiries about Palworld without directly referring to the game. The company stated that it would investigate whether Palworld's character designs infringe upon Pokémon's copyright, a right it continues to defend vigorously.

since I'm bored as hell, I'm gonna be making a thread of this I think... Palworld design analysis trying to spot every pokemon they jumbled together pic.twitter.com/Ch9jcx5hCI

– onion_mu (@onion_mu) January 18, 2024

Nintendo, one of the most famously litigious entities in the video game industry, aggressively pursues individuals who share and develop unofficial or pirated copies of its games. Many expected the company to take similar action against Palworld developer Pocket Pair, as the monsters it designed bear uncanny resemblances to specific Pokémon.

Legal experts have acknowledged these resemblances but admit they might be just different enough to escape a lawsuit. Palworld also faced accusations of ripping 3D assets directly from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, but no concrete evidence has surfaced. Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe claimed that Palworld passed legal reviews before its release. Moreover, images from Palworld have been publicly available since at least 2022 – Nintendo and the Pokémon Company have had two years to sue Pocket Pair but never did.

pic.twitter.com/Vbb7BvTzj7

– onion_mu (@onion_mu) January 18, 2024

The Palworld developer also noted that, despite the visual similarities, the game bears little mechanical resemblance to Pokémon. It's more an amalgamation of elements from many popular titles, including Pokémon, Ark: Survival Evolved, Minecraft, Fortnite, Monster Hunter, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Taking heavy inspiration from another product isn't enough to sustain a lawsuit.

Regardless of the legal status of the game's default characters, modders will find it challenging (though not impossible) to add real Pokémon to Palworld. Nexus Mods refuses to carry Pokémon-related mods for Palworld, fearing Nintendo's wrath, although it still hosts Pokémon mods for other games. A YouTuber who posted a now-deleted video of one such mod later said, "Nintendo has come for me." A Discord server for Palworld mods also forbids any discussion of mods to add Pokémon.

#Palworld has sold over 8 million copies in less than 6 days!

Thank you very much!!

As stated previously, we continue to work at full-speed on addressing bugs and issues!
Thanks for your support!#Pocketpair pic.twitter.com/4PLB1J4CYH

– Palworld (@Palworld_EN) January 25, 2024

Although other monster-taming games with cartoon-like art styles exist, the conversation surrounding Palworld has become so heated due to its historic success. Over the weekend, we reported that it had sold three million copies and reached 1.8 million concurrent players on Steam, but Palworld has since surpassed these milestones.

Palworld is currently the top-selling and most-played game on Steam as of January 25, outperforming evergreen pillars like Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG. On Thursday, Pocket Pair announced that Palworld has sold eight million copies on Steam. According to unofficial data, it has become the second game in Steam's history to exceed two million concurrent players. Its peak is now second only to PUBG's three million, and it could take the crown, given its current pace and planned updates.

The latest patch introduced significant bug fixes, and Pocket Pair's roadmap includes substantial upcoming features. The developer plans to add PvP, end-game raid bosses, new environments, Xbox-Steam crossplay, and more.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/101649-pokmon-company-investigating-palworld-potential-ip-violation.html

 

[m4a4]

As in, it's not a slam dunk (like so many people want it to seem), so they're still trying to figure out if it's worth starting something.

And I bet they know it'll be a fight against whatever precedence there is for parody.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

They could have at least created their own designs, most are almost exact copies of the Pokémon

I still can't believe a generic game that grossly copies everything is selling so much lol

 

[holydiver]

The lawsuit attention will bring Palworld developers more and more players! Pokemon games have been utter garbage for the last 10 years and everyone knows it. Nintendo gets what they deserve.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

The lawsuit attention will bring Palworld developers more and more players! Pokemon games have been utter garbage for the last 10 years and everyone knows it. Nintendo gets what they deserve.

No, they are likely to lose their souls facing Nintendo. lol

 

[Furriest]

Maybe Nintendo should stop slacking on their software instead of their legal team.

 

[Durch]

No, they are likely to lose their souls facing Nintendo. lol

Even if Nintendo did pursue a legal challenge, they could simply just change their character models to comply.

An alternative to joycon drift would be a benefit regardless.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

In the legal sytem there's being right and then there's having enough money to bankrupt your opponent into loosing.

 

[GeforcerFX]

In the legal sytem there's being right and then there's having enough money to bankrupt your opponent into loosing.

$240,000,000 in two weeks can buy you a lot of litigation time.

 

[Trapped Nowhere]

We called them fakemon back in the day

 

[erickmendes]

How many games would never be made if every developer feared "borrowing" some elements from other games?
I think Nintendo true fear is that someone else makes a better Pokemon game.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

How many games would never be made if every developer feared "borrowing" some elements from other games?
I think Nintendo true fear is that someone else makes a better Pokemon game.

It amazes me to see people defending someone who stole everyone's designs and ideas, and didn't make an effort to create a single original thing. They were not inspired to create something "similar", they simply copied the design with minimal differences.

It doesn't matter if it was from a multi-billionaire Nintendo or the indie artist who can't even pay the bills, whoever steals other people's work needs to get screwed.

 

[erickmendes]

It doesn't matter if it was from a multi-billionaire Nintendo or the indie artist who can't even pay the bills, whoever steals other people's work needs to get screwed.

Fair, Nintendo can keep firing upon anyone who tries to steal its IP, but could also in the meantime make better Pokemon games...

 

[Theinsanegamer]

It amazes me to see people defending someone who stole everyone's designs and ideas, and didn't make an effort to create a single original thing. They were not inspired to create something "similar", they simply copied the design with minimal differences.

It doesn't matter if it was from a multi-billionaire Nintendo or the indie artist who can't even pay the bills, whoever steals other people's work needs to get screwed.

So all the gameplay is copied too? I'd love to hear how that would turn out. Where did it come from?

 

[Suppels]

It amazes me to see people defending someone who stole everyone's designs and ideas, and didn't make an effort to create a single original thing. They were not inspired to create something "similar", they simply copied the design with minimal differences.

Most games that come out now are copying elements from other games... Which is fine in the sense one game doesn't own a mechanic.

This game has more similarities with Ark Survival Evolved than it does Pokemon.

 

[Burty117]

It amazes me to see people defending someone who stole everyone's designs and ideas...

That's every game, every... single... game...

I love your comments though, you're so desperate to poo poo Palworld you're completely missing the point.

Nintendo makes rubbish Pokemon games now, this has sold so well because it's not terrible...
Also shows the appetite for PC gamers and Pokemon, imagine the money Nintendo would rake in if they made a half decent Pokemon game and released it not exclusively on Nintendo hardware.

Just like how ID Software can't sue anyone making a Doom like game, or Activision suing anyone making a first person shooter. Or Nintendo suing anyone making an RPG like Zelda, Nintendo cannot sue Palworld for being "pokemon like".

Otherwise we'd have a single franchise in every genre of gaming...
Or if you're planning on linking me the creature comparisons people have been making, shall I link you screenshot comparisons between CoD and Battlefield? Or pretty much any WWII shooter?

As I said, All games are a copying each other at this point. Very few games are releasing anything new or original.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I'm curious if they used "AI" to help design the furball models?

I'm sure if that's the case then "AI" had a lot of pokeyourmom models to "learn" from online and that's probably why a lot of the models have similarities to the pokeyourmom characters.

 

[erickmendes]

Here in Brasil we got a similar IP that's also has a lot of "pokemoness"... It's called Bagmon lol
It's made of pok... mean, bagmons that's based on brasillian memes, animals and so on. Google for bagdex/bagmon.

 

[yRaz]

We called them fakemon back in the day

And 30 years later they're one of the most valuable IPs on the planet

 

[redgarl]

Called it... I was right...

 

[redgarl]

How many games would never be made if every developer feared "borrowing" some elements from other games?
I think Nintendo true fear is that someone else makes a better Pokemon game.

There is a difference between borrowing element and downright copying.

 

[Burty117]

There is a difference between borrowing element and downright copying.

What you mean is "not enough competition in the area Pokemon dominates in... due to lack of competition..."

By the way that screenshot isn't a one off, just off the top of my head I could probably find hundreds of examples where different games look almost the same.

 

[kira setsu]

Thats just nintendo saying something so rabid fans will just shut tf up.

if they were gonna do something they wouldve a long time ago, the fact they killed off that palworld pokemon mod quick as sh*t shows they're watching.

hands are tied, gaming is full of clones, blatant ones, maybe they'll take a page from fromsoftware's book and just make a better game than everyone else now, an ocean of souls clones then they go and release elden ring to critical acclaim.....which is really just botw for sadist.

no matter what in gaming, big hitter titles borrow something from someone. the trick is to bolt on something special, sadly no one really knows what that special sauce is because its always changing, new god of war is just magical the last of us for instance....

 

[FluffiestZinogre]

I think Thor covered this best on Youtube.
The Pokemon Company is one of the most litigious and protective companies in regards to their IP.
Additionally Palworld has been public about development for the game the past couple years and both companies reside within Japan which has some of the most aggressively protective IP laws in place.
If they were reasonably infringing, they would've already sued Palworld into the ground to keep the game from ever seeing the light of day.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

That's every game, every... single... game...

I love your comments though, you're so desperate to poo poo Palworld you're completely missing the point.

Nintendo makes rubbish Pokemon games now, this has sold so well because it's not terrible...
Also shows the appetite for PC gamers and Pokemon, imagine the money Nintendo would rake in if they made a half decent Pokemon game and released it not exclusively on Nintendo hardware.

Just like how ID Software can't sue anyone making a Doom like game, or Activision suing anyone making a first person shooter. Or Nintendo suing anyone making an RPG like Zelda, Nintendo cannot sue Palworld for being "pokemon like".

Otherwise we'd have a single franchise in every genre of gaming...
Or if you're planning on linking me the creature comparisons people have been making, shall I link you screenshot comparisons between CoD and Battlefield? Or pretty much any WWII shooter?

As I said, All games are a copying each other at this point. Very few games are releasing anything new or original.

I don't think you even read what I said. I wrote that this generic-dull-poor game copied the pokemon designs down to the smallest detail, that's obvious. I did not say that copying elements, even if so crudely and without any improvement, is grounds for legal action.

The game itself is an allegory that proves how easy it is to make money from "gamers",
the game uses generic assets purchased from UE4, copied elements from Ark, Pokémon designs to attract attention and... there go the pathetic "gamers" throwing money at this dull thing.