The Pokémon Company Releases Official Statement About Palworld

...This was why I said Nintendo would likely not do anything here, because the Pokemon Company will. lol

Go get em tiger.

let's see how this gets twisted into a billion ways

Interpretation - they will sue if they feel strongly about having a case.

Funny how it's suddenly a concern now after the game is a huge success, but not before when trailers were shown at Geoff's shows. 🤔

@Rika_Yoshitake I'm positive that somewhere on the internet, certain camps will glaze over what is basically standard practice by an IP holder, and are already taking this statement to mean "Lol, Nintendo/Game Freak is scared!!"

Really weird how some people get a kick out of this stuff. They really need to get a life and stop fighting for companies that couldn't care less about their existence. Don't get me wrong, if there's some kind of violation the company is within their right. It's just that I couldn't care less about trying to prosecute them myself.

If the designs were really AI generated based on Pokémon designs then TPC might actually have a case here (still no evidence though). That said, I'm still not too sure how the legalities would work for AI generated assets and AFAIK still a gray area in most industries.

Better grab me a copy.

@roy130390 That’s always bugged the cr@p out of me. I get the human nature thing about identifying with a group and all that reptilian brain stuff, but corporations? Really?

@Zach777 Yes because supporting a game series that sold you a buggy incomplete game, then released and sold you add on content before fixing said game is a good idea, I don't suppose I should mention the one that came before and was sold on lies as well hmm?

As off now they wont have a case.

Anyone knowledgeable about copyright law here can tell if The Pokémon Company has anything to claim against Palworld?
To me it seems flimsy, but I'm no expert.

And that makes 6 articles about Palworld just this week

Honestly I think Palworld can co-exist with Pokemon. I feel the only reason they're paying attention to it is because the game is really popular and sold a lot of copies. I know people are talking about the whole asset thing but still.

@RobTheIII don't try to reason with the fans, I made the same argument and all I got back was "stop bullying us, let people buy what they want to buy."

@HatesCheese “It’s like printing my own money”

@Pat_trick
Yes i have, eventho some creatures "look" like Pokemon type creatures, they are not identical.
If also the names where somewhat identical or close, then they would have more of a case. The developers tweaked the Pals in such a way that they are save. But thats up to a judge to decide.
Gamefreak is just sweating. When Sony gets this game on ps5 (they re already in talks with) the succes will be unstoppable.
I played this game, and the gameplay isnt even close to Pokemon. Its a mix of the best of couple of games, rpg, monster catching, Ark survival, base building. Gameplay wise its completely different from any Pokemon game. So the only claim they would have is that their characters look a like.

I know folk say this game doesn't affect Pokemon. That the two can get along fine, But look how it dilutes the Pokemon brand! I mean, take this Nintendo-centric site for example. How many articles ? It'not even on Switch! So it's clear it eats at some mindshare. We will probably be getting a poll asking us if we want it to come to Switch 2 before the week is out lol.

I think there is enough reasonable likeness to warrant looking into. No idea if it builds into a case. We'll see.

@HatesCheese Whatever generates those clicks, man

I love how all the armchair lawyers act like they understand how this will go down. We don’t. If anything, TPC’s attention will drive the sales further. We don’t know what is going on behind the scenes.

@The-Chosen-one Good to know. It doesn't look like they have much of a case then.
Thanks for the info!

@mariomaster96 sadly yes, it's working cause I've clicked on and read each one....

@JoeSooper The game itself is no concern but what does concerns are the mods which could contain Pokemon contents in them. The Pokemon company intends on making money with their contents, any mod that use the Pokemon IP in Palworld either for profit or to give away for free without permission are in violation of copyright.

"<We have received> many inquiries regarding another company’s game..."

This sounds to me more like pressure from something (or someone) else, because they were "calm", there were no real plans for confrontation, and apparently, they had already run out of patience...

@RobTheIII

What are you popping off for? If I bought something with my own money, that’s on me, not in the company that sold it to me.

Seems like you read a little too much of your emotional baggage into my comment.

It’s kind of a ripoff of Pokémon…. but it’s a really fun game 😁

@Zyph No they don't, because this technology, like AI Art came so sudden, that laws are not in place yet to deal with this.

It's only now being debated about the morality of AI Art engines training on existing artists art without their concent (they claim fair use in this), but no concrete action has been taken yet.

It's the same with ChatGPT, OpenAI, etc that literally scraped the entire internet to feed and train the algorithm.

Google Search engine has been doing this for over 2 decades now, as otherwise it won't function. So it's not even new.
You are literally responsible yourself, if you want your website to stay out of the Google search results, by baking in extra code in your website.

Either way, I have been playing the game for days now. There are only a handful of Pals in the game that closely resemble existing Pokemons and all these overzealous fans, even putting out death threads against the devs, are hammering on.
In worse case scenario the devs will be CoD'ed for these handful of Pals and have to remove them from the game and rework them a bit.
There is nothing to see here. It's all overblown, as Nintendo/TPC would have taken action long ago.
Just look at the Palworld mod, that actually converts all Pals into actual Pokemon and NPC's into known characters of the series. The Youtuber got an immediate CoD from TPC and was forced to remove all videos!

Regarding those criticizing the Pokémon Company as going too far for intervening once a game becomes successful, I'm a little confused how that makes the company harsher. A company always has the right to protect IPs from copyright violations, big or small. So if a company chooses to overlook the financially insignificant violations, why is that a ground for criticism? A company has a right to prevent all violations, so only focusing on the financially big ones equals less lawsuits than the Pokémon Company has the right to.

Copying Pokemon and Ark's gameplay isn't an issue but stealing designs and profiting from that no matter what you think of Pokemon is just 100% wrong and if the Devs have done that i hope Nintendo and TPC wreck them in court.

@Serpenterror
Yeah the modders are a concern, there is already a ash ketshum mod with original Pokemon, thats what i dont like. Ill just play the game as intended.

I personally think this whole thing is hilarious. The biggest richest company in the world vs another company idk how big but it's definitely not a local indie mom n pop that's for sure. Pokemon company and nintendo will not lose any money over this. I have no strong opinions, I'm just watching the fruitless arguments over this explode everywhere as if this is devastating news. Every year there is another pokemon competitor/ripoff, and they all go the same. I think the monster catching genre has a lot of potential, hopefully people go in Yo-Kai Watch's footsteps

@The-Chosen-one I’m not a big fan of mods personally, but I will defend modders.

If it’s a private modder then I feel they should be able to do what they like as long as they don’t profit from it.

My friend modded Final Fantasy 15 to have Noctis and co turned into random characters that included Luigi. It was not something I would do, but it was funny and imho should be legitimately fine. It doesn’t hurt the company.

Ash Ketchum in this is just a jibe at the whole similarity thing. It’s not going to affect Pokémon.

@roy130390 This, so much.

If Nintendo win a lawsuit on this, I wonder what will happen. Will other companies get involved?

That main yellow guy looks like Electrabuzz crossed with Totoro. Will Ghibli sue also?

So Palworld is being investigated but TemTem isn't? Are Palworld's designs so much closer to Pokemon? Because that's the only angle i see they can take, if that's the case.

@RubyCarbuncle So if Nintendo/TPC find evidence and prove Palworld stole designs and then sue or even get the game shut because of that you will stop supporting the wronged party because the makers of your new favourite toy got caught out for theft?

@Fizza Cassette Beasts is fantastic.

The only "appropriate measures" The Pokemon Company need to take is to put more effort into improving the quality and breadth of their own games. They've become complacent, and Palworld is what happens when you get caught napping.

And after all this, Nintendo will announce Palworld coming to Switch at next months direct

Man this has really made a lot of noise.

While I understand some of it case the designs and stuff are literally borderline copycats.

Why are fans fighting harder than the PC? If they saw something wrong I'm pretty sure they would have taken action immediately.

@HatesCheese,

Gotta catch all them clicks.

What’s Pokémon? Just sounds like Palworld without guns

@Fizza TPC just came out with a statement, because of a handful of overzealous Pokemon fans going all crazy on the internet and even sending death threats to these devs!

Trust me, both Nintendo and TPC are lightning quick in sending out CoD's to people and companies, when they even as much as sniff Copyright infringement.
Just look at that Pokemon mod for Palworld. It was taken down by CoD from TPC very quickly!

Palworld is walking a tight grey line for sure, especially if they used Art AI, but there is literally nothing to see here or TPC/Nintendo would have already taken action long ago, when first footage of Palworld appeared.
These devs are in Japan even, so on same home turf as TPC/Nintendo. The lawyers would have been on their doorstep already.

Nintendo: Just ignore it.

The Pokémon Company: This means war!

@roy130390 uh ok

Everyone saying that The Pokémon Company is doing this because of Palworld's success probably haven't been paying attention to how Nintendo/TPC operate. They are very protective of the IP and will take anything down that infringes on that in the slightest, whether it's a full game or fan-made stuff. Nintendon't play that.

@RandomDave absolutely not

This is one of the rare times I will be taking Nintendo's/TPC side when it comes to taking legal action.

Well since it has come to light that it’s highly likely that the Palworld devs imported Pokémon 3D assets and then added some modifications I really hope Nintendo/TPC sues. That level of intellectual property infringement is simply not okay. If they get away with it it’ll just hurt the industry as a whole.
Shame they’ve taken the easy/lazy route when it comes to their design since Palworld otherwise seems fun.

Didn't think the tyrannts at nintendo would let this one pass

@Tasuki Pokémon fanboys*. As a Nintendo fanboy, I couldn't give a monkeys if this ever gets to Switch or not, I have other things to play it on and the game doesn't interest me at all. Pokémon fans are just mad because someone's made a "Pokémon" game that actually works.

The Pokemon Company will be fine, and I do suspect Pocket Pair will owe them some money and require some changes to similar monsters.

The issue is that this is a recurring thing for them. They've been more than just "inspired" by a couple other franchises for their games, and their next release copies from an indie dev, Team Cherry, who doesn't have the financial might of the Pokemon Company.

It is in the best interests of creators everywhere for Pocket Pair to be hammered hard for this.

Many users appear to be dissatisfied about the latest Pokémon outlets, and they find pleasure in rooting for the underdog. It's an understandable sentiment, but it's also important to look at the bigger picture.

It's no mere coincidence these designs look so much alike. It could be to simply profit from the familiarity of the Pokémon franchise, or more worrisome – to cut corners during development by using AI tools and leech off of other people's labor.

If AI-techniques have indeed been used to "remix" existing work and profit from it, then it would be very hurtful for entertainment industries if such practices would allow a legal loophole.

@Kienda
Yeah there you have a point

@StefanN TemTem has Pokemon-like designs. But no individual Temtem actually resembles any individual Pokemon.

Palworld differs because looking at them it's very easy to see which particular Pokemon they used to make the design. Each Pokemon is a copyrighted and trademarked character so if something is too close to a specific Pokemon then that's infringing.

But Palworld is so blatant about it one of them, Lovander design seems to copy Salazzle AND its description of being obsessed with mating seems to be also lifted from Salazzle's Pokedex entry of being focused on forming harems of Salandits.

Like they've lifted design and lore for a very specific Pokemon to make a monster that resembles it. At that point isn't a coincidence and can only be taken as intentionally ripping off the work of others.

@Cameron_Poe And you don't think other game studios do it?

Big studios have been caught red handed for this already in the past, by re-using/reverse engineering existing assets and modifying them to save money and time.
As long as the assets are modified enough, it no longer resembles the original, there is no longer any infringement.

It's the same in the music industry. Sampling existing music has been a staple in the industry for decades. As long as the samples are modified enough and/or original used samples are not longer than 3seconds, you can get away with it, as long as the rest of the song is original.

Car industry. It's a known secret that major car manufacturers are buying succesful cars from competitors, take them completely apart / reverse engineer it to check for advantages and copy parts/designs.
Here too, Mercedes was caught red handed years ago, when they steeped so low as to not even buy a Tesla Model X, but rented it from some private person via a proxy entity and took it completely apart to study it and then re-assembled it and send it back to this private person, without saying anything.

Like I said before, if Nintendo/TPC sniffed copyright infringement, they would have already sent lawyers at Pocket Pair's door step. They are in Japan, so same country even.

A bad parody of an already bad franchise , the inception of mediocrity

@roy130390 is the reason you “couldn't care less about trying to prosecute them myself” because it’s not your IP being stolen?

Would you be more bothered if it was your car?

@Dr_Lugae That's the clarification I was looking for, thanks a lot!

@The-Chosen-one that one that got covered recently? I'm not convinced it was ever worked on. We only ever got a video that I feel, going by his style, was just made to provoke a reaction.

@datamonkey true words. It's also probably harder to understand defending copyright if they've never created anything to profit from

@Ejadaddy only true to some extent. In the sea of copyright infringing stuff the first check they seem to do is whether there's any money being made. They tend to prioritise those.

I understand taking some sort of preventative action but don’t think it will go anywhere. Pokemon can’t own the rights to animal/inanimate object mutations.

I just hope this doesn’t damage the Xbox/Nintendo friendship.

This is a good thing. If TPC does not sue, it means they consider that no plagiarism has taken place. If they do sue, then we will find out from the outcome if any plagiarism took place. So this can finally be put to rest.

@Ashunera84 Reading lots of the comments was making me lose my faith in humanity. Yours helped me get it back.

@K1LLEGAL Why? XBOX has nothing to do with this.

The legal test in the UK for this sort of thing would be whether 'a moron in a hurry' would mistake it for a Pokemon game. I'd argue that they would based on the designs. Strictly it applies to trademarks but it's often used in a broader way.

Edit: just realised I had this legal test wrong in that the test fails if 'only a moron in a hurry' would mistake two similar items rather than things needing to be sufficiently distinctive for said moron. I apologise for my error.

@roy130390 But the Pokémon Company clearly cares about us. They even said so in their statement: "We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future."

/s

I think TPC have a pretty good case with a lot of the models I've seen in the gameplay and trailers of Palworld. While I think the game is a great example of a twist in monster catching games, I think their approach is really wrong, with very obvious plagiarism of assets. If they had approached their monster design differently, I suppose they never would have gotten this much publicity in the first place. Time will tell if they won't get sued out of existence. But my bets are clearly on TPC if it will come to a case, even though I have zero empathy for them anymore.

Sorry but this is so salty. They only care because it's been successful. Pokemon is the most profitable franchise in the entire world, Palworld is literally no threat to Pokemon so why are people so bothered (and it looks like a great game).

@Pat_trick

An important criteria in plagiarism cases is whether or not the work is distinctive "enough" to avoid confusion among consumers.

This is a subjective matter. Avid gamers might understand the distinction between the two properties well enough. But imagine a Pokémon plush toy lying next to a Palworld one in a kid's store, and suddenly it becomes not unthinkable that parents could snatch up the wrong item by mistake.

We'll see how things develop, but there's certainly ground to look into this from a legal perspective. If you play with fire, chances are you get burned.

The Pokemon company should just buy Palworld and put them to work on the next Pokemon game with Gamefreak.

I hope Pokemon Co take legal action, if only to help further clarify whether training generative AI on copyrighted content constitutes "fair use". Rather than have Big Tech continue developing generative AI as they see fit, I think it's about time to have legal limits in place first.

Right now, generative AI is making headway in many aspects of life. The consequence of applying generative AI in the workplace might cause junior-level positions to become less valuable. I.e. AI might be doing a good-enough job at that level already.

This has less weight than Stairway To Heaven plagiarism case.

@RubyCarbuncle I spend my time hating Pokemon on here? Well that's straight up BS as i love Pokemon and have heavily defended Gen 9 many many times on here but hey as you love evidence so much show me evidence of me doing such a thing.

If anything happens to Palworld its because legally there's a case, if nothing happens then clearly TPC and their lawyers have found no wrong doing. Nintendo/TPC can't just shut random games they need actual grounds, if Palworld is innocent then don't worry its perfectly safe.

'We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world'

Apart the ones in your messy games apparently.

@8bit-Man Interesting. From a gameplay perspective they're completely different games, but there are definitely similarities between the creatures. I guess it could become quite the issue if they decide to take further action.

Making money by stealing other peoples work. Yeah, great.

@roy130390 That’s what I keep saying. It’s like a parasocial relationship. The only thing Nintendo (And just like any other big company for that matter) cares about is if you buy their games.

I don't think they'll sue unless they have a smoking gun. As in 'this was literally ripped from a pokemon game'. Rather than 'this was traced based on our work'. Even a small chance at losing this lawsuit wouldn't be worth it otherwise due to the prescedent it'd set.

@Type_Trubbish indeed, this is just the same stupidity thats been around for over 20 years now with people screaming rip-off but cranked up a bit because pal world got popular seemingly fast when its been building up for a few years now and that whole thing with people falsely accusing it of using AI generated models resulting in people (like @Qwiff, @8bit-Man) taking it with too much merit in it.
https://twitter.com/MetalDragonKid/status/1748952701071655171
the first trailer was over a year before AI art got to the point that it got considered a threat to artists and while theres some obvious similarities, they're not exact copies.
gamefreak's own incompetence is also partly to blame for its popularity as it's not as much of a buggy mess as SV still is and is more fleshed out.
@RupeeClock those fakemon kind of the whole issue with trying to quantify something as a pokemon or not as pokemon are usually just simplistic combos.
bulbasaur? slap a bulb on a frog and done.
shaymin? albino hedgehog with some hedge and a flower on top.
klink? two gears with faces
flamigo? lets just take someone's lawn ornament and make it a pokemon
charizard? thats just the earliest realized image of a dragon modified a bit

They are not really gonna do anything about it because there really isn't much they can do about it.
If anything they may likely ask them to modify the design on some of the Pal monsters so they won't look so similar to their Pocket Monsters, but even that is unlikely to happen.

In the long run of all this current events, I think people are just kinda seriously overreacting about it all, just like they did back then when Genshin Impact first came out and everyone made a huge deal about it being a "Breath of the Wild ripoff".

@RupeeClock Even if the claims of generative AI use turn out to be baseless, which they might very well be, a potential case helps uncover that. I do see this statement by Pokemon Co as a shot across the bow.

If they have a case built on hard evidence, then Palworld rightfully deserves to be taken legal action against.
If not, then everyone can go about their merry way.

As others have said, if they had a case they would’ve made one the minute it hit digital shelves. I think this is more of an obligated response due to all of the bickering over the past week.

@RupeeClock Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Yeah, generative AI would not be the first time laws need to catch up with tech developments. It's a hot-button issue exactly because there is no legal clarity. And it might be years before the smoke clears, but you have to start somewhere.

Maybe the outcome of legal proceedings would be that companies have to clarify the exact use of AI in their products. Nothing wrong with that, if you ask me.

@Jeronan I know but I have seen Valve step in with Nintendo before with things like this. I don’t think anything will come of this though so it’s fine. Other games are allowed to exist. I think it’s just Pokemon Company looking into it really.

I'm getting a good kick out of this saga, it's pretty amusing.

I hope there's no legal battle. Just make the best games you can and don't worry about imitators. All resources should go into making games better.
Having just played Palworld a little while I've got to say I don't think Nintendo has to worry about being outclassed in quality. I love that Palworld runs at 60 to 125fps on my laptop, but I've gotten so used to how Link holds his posture, how he moves, how nice all that is, and my character in Palworld looks and moves sorta badly. It makes it hard to get lost in the game, which happens every time I play BOTW or TOTK. I also like the way my character moves in Arceus, it's just not as nice as Link.

Even if they do find anything evidence worthy(I doubt it) I couldn’t see them taking any action, because like I said a couple days ago, the backlash from the 7 million playing the game would destroy their reputation.

Palworld certainly wears its influence on its sleeve, but I am guessing someone has already "done the research" knowing full well Nintendo (or the Pokemon Company) might step in.

Not saying they shouldn't step in - if actual IP theft has occurred than it should be prosecuted accordingly - I am just not so sure if it has a case as none of the character look to be exact copies of (just heavily influenced by) Pokemon characters.

And this is one of the things I hope palworld changes as the game gets bigger, I hope they adjust some of the designs if they have to because if they really did just steal models then yeah that will change how I view this game, if it used ai it will change how I view it, but right now the ai thing litrally is just speculation based of the creators past, and the twitter user that did originally bring up palworld stealing the models lied anyway. Now that doesn’t mean it a doesn’t hold any water because they do look similar.

Tltr: if palworld stole any models or messed with any ai then this will change how I view the game, but as of right now it’s speculation.

@K1LLEGAL I am sure they already looked into it.

TPC just had to come out with a statement, after overzealous Pokemon fans going all crazy on the internet and sending death threats to the people at Pocketpair. Just because a handful of Pals look a bit too similar to Pokemon.

If you actually play the game, then you will see that the vast majority of Pals in this game actually do look unique.

So like I said before, nothing will come from it. At worse case scenario, Pocketpair will have to rework some of these Pals that have too close a resemblance to existing Pokemon. That's it.

@Jeronan I have played a couple hours so far and I don’t see any issues. But sure maybe a few “pal” designs could be changed if needed to make it go away.

Hopefully they investigate how to make a game running smoothly xD

@McBurn Exactly. TPC could learn a thing or two from these devs.
For such a small studio, this Early Access release so far has been a very smooth experience. Very few issues in the game. It runs a hell lot better than Pokemon Scarlet/Violet.

TPC should be more worried about their own games and the terrible state they are in and give Gamefreak more resources and more time to develop games and not release them when they are not ready!

Pokemon is currently literally one of the largest franchises in the world! So TPC should be ashamed the state they released Pokemon Scarlet/Violet are in. Even more than a year later, they never delivered on their promise to fix the performance issues. It was nothing but a BIG lie!

I hope this not wins, because it would be Darkest Day for 3D games at least, because everything made in 3D, aka walking animations and such as even you replicated from scratch yourself, will now be considered as stolen assets if it is not made by Big Company/AAA Studio and can be striked down. So if this win I not buy non Big Company/AAA Studio 3D games! Scary..! Plus Palworld was probably developed way more then 3 years, it was just announced around 3 years ago...

As Beetlejuice would say: "It's Showtime!"

Yeah I agree with others on here. I'm sure the developers covered themselves to where they are safe, but there can't be much doubt at all that they purposefully made the creatures look similar to Pokemon to help sell it. Everytime I see a thumbnail picture for one of the articles on this site I immediately think it might be a Pokemon article before I read the title.

I'm really enjoying watching some folks cheering on copyright infringement/plagiarism because "the victim had it coming".

It can both be true that Palworld is better than ScarVi and that they broke the law by using TPC's assets.

@datamonkey You think that you are making a good point but that's the thing: If it was my car, of course I'd be interested since it would be my own business and, unlike billionaire company and most popular IP, common folks wouldn't have the urge to defend me.

Besides, I hope that you realize that, unlike your example, in this case it's people ASSUMING that said IP is being stolen and that situations like this aren't really that clear as you and others assure. Even if the justice system ended up deciding that's the case, it doesn't change that it's people fighting for something that doesn't need them when there's so many matters in the world that need attention and justifying harassment and witch hunts on something that they know little to nothing about. As far as I know, there isn't a measurable way of determining at what point something becomes a rip-off and not inspired by it or similar, hence why this stuff is often fought in court.

Personally all I see is a lot of similar designs with similar gameplay just at it's core elements (catching creatures and fighting with them) and I'm not egotistical enough to assure that I'm right about it. As a Pokemon fan since Red/Blue: life goes on, I have other stuff to care about and stuff to do to get so involved in something that doesn't affect me.

@nimnio "If you’re okay with enjoying a game that lacks originality and rides on the coattails of others, then you’re part of a bigger problem in the gaming industry." Ah yes, bigger problems in the gaming community like Soulslikes & Metroidvanias, entire genres that exist of the coattails and ideas of specific games. Can't wait to see 'em and the scum who enjoy them get removed TBH.

The AI use of pre-existing Pokemon was more or less debunked, with the origins of it going back to someone reacting to a Buzzfeed article saying something along the lines of 'they look AI generated'. And naturally none of the people screaming fact checked this. That and Steam forces companies to state if the game was made using any AI assets, again, not like I'd expect them to know.

Capcom U.S.A. Inc. v. Data East Corp. showed you need more than similarities to have a case, and Fighter's History was way closer to SF2 than Palworld is to Pokemon. So if this goes to court I don't see TPC winning, and that's more wasted money that could've gone to making their own product better.

Sega and Capcom should go after them for ceruledge and iron valiant then.

@jsty3105 Not Nintendo. They really don't care about the money as much as they do protecting their brand, which IS their money.

A couple of things:

1) I personally don't have any interest in playing this game. But I am not about to hate on or get nasty with those who do.

2) It's obviously ripping off or getting very close to the edge of infringing on the designs of Pokémon. I read an interview from the CEO of Pocketpair, claiming Pokemon wasn't an inspiration. He can't think anyone believes that?

3) What is baffling is the many takes on this game and how similar it is or isn't to Pokémon, in terms of gameplay. By some accounts, the gameplay isn't all that similar and more akin to the Ark series. Yet, some other accounts are claiming GF should be on notice of how well this is doing. But why should they if the gameplay isn't similar? Which is it?

4) I also think it'll be interesting to see how this is approached with both companies being Japanese-based. Outside of whatever legal ramifications may exist, I wonder if there are any ethical or moral ramifications in terms of whether it's culturally okay to rip off a fellow countryman's product in the way this is done. And before anyone sees to jump on my use of the words ethical and moral, I don't mean them in the sense of it being a matter of life or death.

@nimnio yeah but why do you care?

Its so funny seeing so many people here misunderstand The Pokemon Company statement and twisted it into "Pokemon is going after PalWorld". People who think like that needs reading comprehension skills direly.

Anything that gives Gamefreak some competition to force them to improve their game is a plus in my book

I’m not reading all 127 comments before saying this but I don’t recall Pokémon ever complaining about Digimon, and that series, at least what I played of it, is as Pokémon-like as it gets 🤨 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2lkz6oS7w4

@Captain4359 several developers are willing to testify that the character models are too similar to be a coincidence

Stealing art shows lack of respect in the industry. People arent mad they made a mashup game, they are mad they stole art.. so should any game studio just use whatever characters they want like value for effort doesnt exist?

@JoeSooper It's only because so many people were probably making an issue out of it like whiny babies, and so The Pokemon Company felt they had to act upon it.

@Kiyata Digimon is way way more of its own flare.. you gotta be weak at art to think its in the same world as what palworld is doing

@PepperMintRex If they have a case built on hard evidence, then Palworld rightfully deserves to be taken legal action against.
If not, then everyone can go about their merry way.

As others have said, if they had a case they would’ve made one the minute it hit digital shelves. I think this is more of an obligated response due to all of the bickering over the past week.

This probably sums up this worldly conflict. If there was a legal or evidence based finding it would've gone quietly away during testing. Ninja would've done their jobs already and they most likely at this point in time don't see something for nothing currently.

@Qwiff What proof is there that they used AI (specifically ones that used Pokemon assets?)? As of now there is no proof, just pure speculation

GO PLAY DAUNTLESS Monster Hunter
Go play Sports games that are the SAME with a ball but has different RULES
FARMING GAMES ARE THE SAME
MUSIC IS ALL THE SAME: love, breakups etc
Open WORLDS ARE THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT CHARACTERS STORY ETC
Pokemon and Digimon Pokemon isn’t the Only monster taming BS games

@BriskSunrise
Pokemon fandom are a bunch of toxic whiny babies that are obsessed with horrible graphics and horrible style monsters. At Least Palworld does it right with adding survival and monsters or people don’t understand parody’s lol

@DTFaux well Palword is better in performance then scaler and violet so they probably try to get something XD

@RobTheIII yea i have the same thinking too, they made crap and probably trying to figure out how Palword made it work , tbh i play freaking 5-6 hours without realizing that's how much potential Palworld have , if it evolves like warframe from when it started out to a much better polished game over a year or 2 they huge fanbase rivaling probably pokemon franchise probably thats what twist tpc pnts

@nimnio

Perhaps the designs are, but given how different the gameplay is, I have trouble calling it a ripoff.

It's gameplay is very different from any of the monster collector games, and very well fleshed out.

The scary thing is that, if I didn't know pokemon's longstanding legacy, I'm not sure I'd know which was the"legitimate" game. In some ways, I feel like palworld is the more well done game.

Palworld is fun as hell. It’s a bummer people can’t let me have anything nice

@TheCrandoDando

I agree 110%

@HecateDFO This is why it's so hard to take the discourse seriously... I know it's fun for folks to imagine them being so petty/insecure, but I'm pretty sure TPC's only concern in this case is whether or not any copyright has been infringed.

Temtem, Coromon, Nexomon, Yo-Kai Watch, Cassette Beasts, Digimon, Monster Hunter Stories, etc. have all managed to exist with no real legal concerns, so it's unlikely to be a matter of performance or whatever other superficial thing people want to speculate.

Unless they have two copies of the exact same game with only one tiny variation. But sell both at full price and call one copy brown edition and the other magenta. They haven't truely copied Pokemon.

To the people saying, "PalWorld is ripping of Game freaks monster designs and that's not cool." How about the companies be allowed to compete of who has the better interpretation of said designs and allow the customers to decide which IP is better overall and maybe jerk a kink in Game freaks tail about innovating their main franchise?

Pal world isnt even anything like pokemon, its rust with creature collecting 💀

So I should buy it now before it’s gone?

@SeantheDon29
Based on the above, I don’t think it’s the fact it’s a Pokemon like, they’re looking into whether actual assets from Pokemon games are used.
You can make a playformer like Mario but if you slap actual Goombas in it then that’s not allowed

@Serpenterror

But i have Pikachu and Sailor Moon in Unreal Tournament 2k4 :>

Agent Smith, Eva01, Bender and other would be very sad, if Mods couldn't exist

I see people kicking and screaming on both sides, meanwhile I just think this game is a blast. I'm not going to let a big corpo or even people on the Internet tell me how I should enjoy my free time. You can't guilt trip me because I honestly don't care, I just want to play fun things and this one's a fun one.

They are losing their ***** because they know some other company made a massive bite into their market by making a game that respects their playerbase. Palword is AMAZING and Pokemon Company should outright buy them and rebrand it as the next Pokemon game as it is. It's that good. STFU Nintendo and Pokemon and maybe start doing better games.

I have been playing Palworld since last Friday. The game is a blast, and outside of the capture mechanics it is an extremely different gameplay experience. If the Palworld developers did lift assets (there are a few extremely similar creature designs) then TPC should do what they need to to protect their property.

Unfortunately I am finding the Palworld community to be extremely toxic. The Palworld reddit is full of people attacking Pokémon, which fine that is their preference, but then going as far as saying they hope palworld did steal Pokémon assets and that TPC has no right to defend their property. They are hoping palworld succeeds in stealing assets to force Nintendo to change Pokémon games. They also whine constantly about being victims of constant attacks by Pokémon fans, yet I have not seen a single one if these attacks.

Palworld is great, but Holy crap the fanbases is a bunch of whiny babies that are hoping a company gets away with illegal tactics (if they happened, that will be up to any courts that get involved to decide)

While we can talk about the merits of Palworld and there are a number of good points. Its a good game despite being extremely derivative by design. Let's not lie to ourselves as the developers are not shy about what kind of games they make. But, some of the designs do lean way too hard into Pokemon. There is taking inspiration from the same sources, as I've heard people say Pokemon took inspiration from Dragon Quest, and Dragon Quest took the same amount of inspiration from DnD. Inspiration is great! Palworld seems to have used direct assets from Pokemon which is a HUGE legal no-no.

But, even then while we can talk about legal no-nos in the West, both companies are Japanese. This will be resolved in a Japanese courtroom if it comes to legal action and if we have learned anything about Japanese copyright law is that it is FAR more strict than US, EU or UK copyright laws. So, it would had been beyond dumb for Pocketpair to directly crib direct assets from the most popular IP in the world. I hope they haven't, but if they used even a whiff of Pokemon assets (even if their CEO says they didn't take inspiration from Pokemon... yeah right) then this is an open and shut case as far as a Japanese judge is concerned.

That's my 2 cents as I don't see this going anywhere good for Palworld if this lands in a Japanese courtroom.

I love how on every single article there's at least several people who think it's about defending a corporation cause of X reason. It's hilariously without nuance, and something thrown just to make Pokemon fans collectively look rabid and brainless so they can feel good belittling them.

Nevermind the fact it was never about defending Game Freak's honor, or whatever, or defending TPC, and was actually just about the fact designs and whole shapes of Pokemon were copied/modeled over. Y'know having artistic integrity, or some semblance of it?

Which I am sure someone will handwave with "well everybody takes from everyone in this industry" or similar.

Well, there's the thing:

Most indie devs go the extra mile to try to make whatever type of game they're aiming, even monster tamer/collector games and their creature designs look distinct from Pokemon precisely to avoid any issues.

If Palworld had gone to the lengths Cassette Beasts did, or Coromon, or some other notable examples of Indie monster tamer/collector games with their Pal designs overall, we wouldn't even be here talking about it. Cause it wouldn't have caused nearly as much of a stink.

Heck. Most other indie titles in the genre or adjacent to it have never gotten into any controversy on grounds of the designs or anything. Because they never did anything like literally taking Lucario's head and sticking it on a quadrupedal body with Raichu's tail with an extra prong, and making a literal Lucario ripoff (Anubis). And those are the only two I'm mentioning just for brevity's sake.

The most that a lot of indies end up doing, you need to squint hard and tilt your head pretty hard to see a passing resemblance. Not the case with Palworld.

@MegaVel91 I think you hit the nail on the head. I was a little skeptical at first over the similarity of designs... but Anubis is 100% a Lucario knock-off. People say, well they are both based on the Egyptian god Anubis, so that is why they look similar. Well, no... look at the design language of both creatures, they look way too similar to say they both took inspiration from the same source.

There is even an unreleased Pal in the code of the game, that is legit just Mega Mewtwo Y!!! You can't look at the two and not go "well, Dark Mutant and Mewtwo Y look the same because they're both based on cat embrios... " if you're making that argument you're just being disingenuous.

The comparison between well Pokemon and Digimon are both similar looking and well, they are never gotten into legal dispute... well have you seen what Digimon look like? They are not even close to Pokemon in design and have very few design overlaps. And both have been around for 30 years! One would think with the amount of Digimon and Pokemon there are they'd have far more overlap.

So, if anyone is making that argument they can't make it in good faith. Palworld clearly ripped some Pokemon designs and remixed them. If that be because of laziness, for controversy, or just simply using AI to design their Pals... it's not a good look from just an artistic integrity lens. And, from a legal standpoint that is for a judge to decide. But, bringing Digimon or even TemTem into this is sheer laughable. If it were that easy to just have monsters look like Pokemon because "from the same inspiration" we'd have far more examples from similar franchises that overlap with Pokemon then we do just from the numbers game.

For all this talk about toxic Pokemon fans, these days all I see are vehement, toxic Pokemon haters, gnashing their teeth and chomping at the bit to earn their badge of anti-hero honor by joining the ranks of online passionate posts deriding the franchise. It has now become trendy to hate on Pokemon, and the haters easily outnumber the fringe group of Pokemon fanatics. The state of affairs is extremely disappointing.

After reading through this entire comment section, it only proves my point.

@Cameron_Poe Ha highly likely? Not even close. If you actually know how typology works you'd know that they probably didnt steal pokemon's 3D assets to make palworld creatures. Someone just pointed out similarities that are similar because that's standard, that's just how you make 3D models.
If you actually look closely at the typology, specifically where different parts of the model come together, you can see that they are completely different. There would be signs if they just modified the existing model. Mainly like typology issues that come with that.
Not to mention the animations would likely have weight painting issues because I highly doubt they would steal a model just to re-weight paint it that's like 80% of the work.
And if you actually look at the animations, they look fantastic, nothing like a stolen model without a custom rig setup would look like.
There is just too much clear effort put into these models and animations for them to be stolen. They only took some design concepts from pokemon, sometimes even the entire color pallet, and remixed them, but that isnt illegal or infringing on anything.

@pupypup I wouldn't say they're in the legal clear. We are talking about two Japanese companies that will need to settle this in Japanese court if it comes to it. As for North American court we do have examples of issues like this such as Disney's objections to "Howard the Duck" from Marvel. We could see a similar settlement here where they'll need to change the infringing Pals. But, this is Japanese court so this could go very south fast for Palworld.

As for morally speaking... It's very ill-moral to do this. You can't deny just lifting Pokemon designs and "remixing them" is very sus and not really what game creators should be doing.

@Wexter I dont see what is ill morally about it. If you ask me copyright law is currently backwards. It should protect the little guy but when we all know what stuff is from a big company influencing pop culture nothing should be kept from the publics hands.
Like how Micky just barely came out of copyright. It should not have taken this long.
Its not like the pure selling point of this game is the fact the creatures look sort of like pokemon. Its the gameplay. If it didnt have good gameplay nobody would be talking about it. Just look at Temtem, that game came out and some people talked about it for being like pokemon but it didnt keep people because the gameplay wasnt that interesting.

@pupypup you understand though that the issues people have with Palworld is the designs legit lift a number of Pokemon and just remix them. There is no parody to it either as confessed by the developers. It's legit just lifting a design due to lack of creativity and/or lack of artistic integrity. Which is what is pissing people off as outside of that it's a really well made game which means the developers are capable of making something legitimately good! And they are not just doing this to the big mean Pokemon Company they are apparently also lifting Fakemon and other fan designs... So what about that? This isn't a copyright issues for writers and artists this is an artistic integrity issue. No one wants their hardwork lifted for someone else's profit. And if they have the balls to do this with the Pokemon Company then what about smaller indi devs who don't have the resources to investigate and possibly sue? Try thinking about that scenario.

@datamonkey YOU WOULDNT DOWNLOAD A CAR

If they lifted assets or stole designs, then yes. Bad. I haven't played it. It's a hit trees with rocks game. Not my jam.
But the fandom is interesting. Seems obvious that some fans were "reporting" this game to the Pokemon Company? I wonder if it's because the game looks more polished than Scarviolet, and is doing insanely well. Then, there's also a part of the fandom that seems to be enraptured that someone is sticking it to Pokemon Company.
It's all much more interesting than either game, imo.

@LikelySatan oh 100% it's a weird issue that has emerged and a weird dissonance. If the creatures didn't look like Pokemon I doubt this would even be a headline. Monster collection games have been around since what Shin Megami Tensei? But, what's weird is Pocketpair says they took no inspiration from Pokemon, but you look at the UI for their box and party system and it's basically ripped from Legends Arcus, and a number of Pals are clearly based on Pokemon (you can't tell me you don't see the similarities between Dark Mutant and Mewtwo Y).

It's so weird, and interesting, just bizarre. It's clear that PocketPair can make a good game, but they clearly don't care as soon as you look at their previous games it's clear that to them "inspiration" is just lifting whole art designs, mechanics and even fonts from other games.

Such a disappointment as on principle this would be a lot of Pokemon fans jam.

@Wexter I'm not a Pokemon fan. As a kid, the idea of blind packs seemed like a ripoff and could never accept owning just one version of the releases. It all seemed scummy. But it's not like I don't see the appeal or like I know nothing at all about the games.
...I wonder how many of the angry fans have downloaded Pokemon Uranium?

@LikelySatan I'm curious as well. It's a pretty fun fan game! Though yeah, I can understand why fans are upset, and Palworld is a good game so I can see why people defend it. It's a weird situation.

While it visually and mechanically is similar to Pokemon, from what I've been told about the game it is not particularly similar in gameplay. Unless the developers were directly ripping assets, I don't think The Pokemon Company will have a case.

@LikelySatan theft is theft. It doesn’t matter what the item in question is, whether it’s downloadable or physical.

It's a reference, and I don't care.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU

@nimnio Oh boo hoo. As if every game doesnt take something from someone else at this point. If Pokemon is too lazy to create something newer, thats on them. Palworld isnt at all revolutionary but Im not gonna complain about finally being able to slice up my Psyduc- I mean Fuack.

Stuff like this is why I got rid of the Switch.