The Pokémon Company issues brief public statement in response to recent online discussions of potential IP infringement by developers of Palworld

The Pokémon Company have released a brief public statement in response to inquiries they have receive relating to potential intellectual property infringement by another game developer. Though the statement names no names, it quite clearly refers to Palworld, the so-called "Pokémon with Guns" game, which has been in the news recently both for its strong initial sales, the public statements of the studio's CEO in support of generative AI, and the similarities many of the game's "Pals" have to different kinds of Pokémon.

The statement, in both Japanese and English, has been reproduced in full below.

他社ゲームに関するお問い合わせについて​

お客様から、2024年1月に発売された他社ゲームに関して、ポケモンに類似しているというご意見と、弊社が許諾したものかどうかを確認するお問い合わせを多数いただいております。弊社は同ゲームに対して、ポケモンのいかなる利用も許諾しておりません。

なお、ポケモンに関する知的財産権の侵害行為に対しては、調査を行った上で、適切な対応を取っていく所存です。

弊社はこれからもポケモン１匹１匹の個性を引き出し、その世界を大切に守り育てながら、ポケモンで世界をつなぐための取り組みを行ってまいります。

株式会社ポケモン

Inquiries Regarding Other Companies’ Games
We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024. We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game. We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon. 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.

The Pokémon Company

 

There is nothing wrong with having designs inspired by art created by a different artist from a different company. The best way to flatter somebody is to follow in their footsteps.

What is wrong is the the direct rip off of other artists’ art slapped on your art instead of making your own. A smith can make a sword, but if the smith took another smith’s sword and only added to it and claimed it as being his original work, then the smith is being devious.

We can argue that GameFreak may be too greedy with their releases with quantity over quality over features of their game realeses, and it is an incredibly profitable company with the top franchise in the world, but their work is still original made by them, and that should still be credited and respected no matter your own grievances.

 

I think the massive levels of blatantly stolen art will probably force the game to pause being sold, the models re-made, and probably have the developers close their doors.

I'd prefer to live in a world where Pokémon could have a rivalling franchise, competition is always good for the consumer, but it needs to be legitimate competition, as it is right now, Pokemon is having to compete with itself, effectively. The stolen assets are so blatantly from Pokemon, that I just don't see Palworld being able to recover.

 

I think the massive levels of blatantly stolen art will probably force the game to pause being sold, the models re-made, and probably have the developers close their doors.

I'd prefer to live in a world where Pokémon could have a rivalling franchise, competition is always good for the consumer, but it needs to be legitimate competition, as it is right now, Pokemon is having to compete with itself, effectively. The stolen assets are so blatantly from Pokemon, that I just don't see Palworld being able to recover.

Actually, this is a realistic world. We have competitors such as Digimon, Dragon Quest Monsters, temtem, Cassette Beasts, Yo-Kai Watch, Nexomon and many others. Competition has always been there.

 

Palworld hit eight million sales in under a week. From what I can find that's possibly better than Sw/Sh sold in the same period of time and at least competitive.
For comparison the latest Dragon Quest Monsters took almost two months to hit one million. Palworld has surprisingly proven a stronger competitor to Pokémon than any of the much larger studio's releases.

As for the lawsuit I'm hearing from different people--none of whom claim to be lawyers--on whether or not TPCI has a case or not so we'll all have to wait and see if they actually file something or not. If the designs alone were enough I'd have expected them to move well before now since Palworld got attention quite some time ago after the first trailer.

 

Palworld hit eight million sales in under a week. From what I can find that's possibly better than Sw/Sh sold in the same period of time and at least competitive.
For comparison the latest Dragon Quest Monsters took almost two months to hit one million. Palworld has surprisingly proven a stronger competitor to Pokémon than any of the much larger studio's releases.

As for the lawsuit I'm hearing from different people--none of whom claim to be lawyers--on whether or not TPCI has a case or not so we'll all have to wait and see if they actually file something or not. If the designs alone were enough I'd have expected them to move well before now since Palworld got attention quite some time ago after the first trailer.

Why would Nintendo file a lawsuit if the aside from monster catching, there is nothing that makes it similar to Pokemon?

 

Why would Nintendo file a lawsuit if the aside from monster catching, there is nothing that makes it similar to Pokemon?

There are/were allegations of Palworld plagiarizing Pokémon designs for the game. There was even someone that modded the game to include Pokémon in the game. However, that person seemed to do it out of spite for the game. Ultimately, it is up to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company if they want to pursue legal action against the Palworld developers. However, it is up in the air how much those plagiarism allegations hold.

 

There are/were allegations of Palworld plagiarizing Pokémon designs for the game.

to add on to this, models were ripped from pokemon. they've been altered, yes, but the bases aren't original content at all. so this goes a little beyond simply allegations, it's just theft and the palworld developers are lucky that the game has lasted as long as it has.
it is also worth noting, as archaic touched on for a second, that the CEO unabashedly and unashamedly supports genAI. i'm quite willing to bet that gamefreak's models aren't the only instance of plagiarism in the game. :V

i'm sure some people are ticked off about this, though. it has quite the audience among the people willing to support anything they view as a middle finger to pokemon.

at any rate, tpci can be a little stingy with their property in the first place, so when met with this blatant of a copyright infringement it would be truly surprising for them to choose not to take action.

 

Why would Nintendo file a lawsuit if the aside from monster catching, there is nothing that makes it similar to Pokemon?

to add on to this, models were ripped from pokemon. they've been altered, yes, but the bases aren't original content at all. so this goes a little beyond simply allegations, it's just theft and the palworld developers are lucky that the game has lasted as long as it has.
it is also worth noting, as archaic touched on for a second, that the CEO unabashedly and unashamedly supports genAI. i'm quite willing to bet that gamefreak's models aren't the only instance of plagiarism in the game. :V

i'm sure some people are ticked off about this, though. it has quite the audience among the people willing to support anything they view as a middle finger to pokemon.

at any rate, tpci can be a little stingy with their property in the first place, so when met with this blatant of a copyright infringement it would be truly surprising for them to choose not to take action.

It's not. Palworld isn't the only game the developer's made that's been accused of being a ripoff. They've also made Craftopia, AI: Art Imposter, and Never Grave, which look and play a lot like BotW, Among Us, and Hollow Knight respectively. This developer has a history of recycling ideas from other developers and similar looking assets, and there's an entire portfolio of potential copyright infringement. It's pretty clear this CEO has zero integrity.

 

Honestly I think it makes sense for TPC to have waited for the game to get released before issuing a statement like this.

It's one thing to look at all the prerelease stuff and think 'Wow these designs really were taking from Pokémon, huh?' and another to actually have the game (and the models used) and compare them to Pokémon models and realize 'Oh no wow some of these designs literally used the actual models of the Pokémon as the basis for their own models'.

 

Good, hopefully they do sue because there are several of those Palworld monsters that are very obviously rip-offs of Pokemon designs; some of those monsters literally resemble parts of different Pokemon fused together. It's too blatant to ignore.

 

These bootlickers just hate Palworld because it proves that an indie developer with a fraction of the budget can make a game much more functional in early access than their pwecious Gamefreak can after a bunch of updates. Oh no, Pokémon has actual competition, how horrible! Now let's spread unfounded accusations of AI use and copying models and send death threats to this small developer team!

If the Palworld devs are so talented, why can't they come up with original designs?

 

These bootlickers just hate Palworld because it proves that an indie developer with a fraction of the budget can make a game much more functional in early access than their pwecious Gamefreak can after a bunch of updates. Oh no, Pokémon has actual competition, how horrible! Now let's spread unfounded accusations of AI use and copying models and send death threats to this small developer team!

The literal CEO or whatever of the company behind Palworld has said, in interviews, that he wouldn't fit in at Nintendo because they care about creativity and originality whereas he is fine with just copying what's popular instead.

Like come on.

Edit: Also this stuff as well

One of the Pocketpair CEO’s X posts from 2022 discussed how he believed generative AI tools could one day be sophisticated enough to avoid copyright issues. In another potentially more damning post from 2021, Mizobe showed how AI could be used to generate new Pokémon designs.

Does this mean that Palworld did use AI? No, but I'm not gonna give some AI-bro the benefit of the doubt either way.

 

The literal CEO or whatever of the company behind Palworld has said, in interviews, that he wouldn't fit in at Nintendo because they care about creativity and originality whereas he is fine with just copying what's popular instead.

Like come on.

Any chance we could get a receipt for this claim?

 

Any chance we could get a receipt for this claim?

https://twitter.com/JonComms/status/1748831085419430300

Here you go.

 

I will say, I don't think the pals were made with AI. There were trailers for this game about 2 years ago, which is before AI tech really took off (chatGPT is only 1 year old for comparison). Keep in mind, the trailer specifically was 2 years ago, meaning the game was likely in development for far longer. Even if the designs can be legally dubious, I doubt they are AI

 

As far as I am concerned, it is something that companies will have to figure out. I have no interest in Palworld, both because I have no means to play and I really don't have much of an interest in mon collecting games outside of Pokémon and SMT. Still, I am fine with some competition if it means better projects to come out for the consumer to play in the future. I also have no ill will to those who play Palworld.

 

These bootlickers just hate Palworld because it proves that an indie developer with a fraction of the budget can make a game much more functional in early access than their pwecious Gamefreak can after a bunch of updates. Oh no, Pokémon has actual competition, how horrible! Now let's spread unfounded accusations of AI use and copying models and send death threats to this small developer team!

An indie developer that couldn't come up with any original ideas and decided to just steal from another franchise. Their game is essentially Pokemon with guns. And there wouldn't be anything particularly problematic about that if it weren't for the simple fact that many of their monster designs are extremely reminiscent of Pokemon designs.

I mean Jesus Christ, when I first saw that one lion-esque Pokemon I literally thought it was a new regional variant of Luxray at first due to its overall shape and color scheme being practically the same as Luxray's. Not to mention that Eevee-Yamper hybrid creature, the Skitty-Galarian Meowth hybrid, and several dozen others that have been posted around social media for over a week now.

This isn't about fear of competition. Pokemon went through that with Digimon, then Yu-Gi-Oh, and most recently Yo-kai Watch without any of those franchises stepping on Game Freak's toes as much as Palworld has just in its debut week alone.

 

To be somewhat fair, at least from a gameplay perspective doesn't Palworld play absolutely nothing like Pokémon - like it's one of those survival games like ARK: Survival Evolved, isn't it?

(Which honestly makes statements like how 'Pokémon has actual competition now' or 'GameFreak could learn from Palworld!' kind of silly because they're completely different genres of game)

 

To be somewhat fair, at least from a gameplay perspective doesn't Palworld play absolutely nothing like Pokémon - like it's one of those survival games like ARK: Survival Evolved, isn't it?

That's my understanding; it's "crafting survival game with mons" instead of the common meme about "Pokémon with guns".
Mind, I haven't played it myself but I've been reading up on the whole thing out of interest and I viewed a bit of demo gameplay.