The Pokémon Company responds to Palworld plagiarism concerns: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures”
Nearly a week after Palworld’s launch, The Pokémon Company issues a statement.
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What you need to know
BetweenPalworld’s record-breaking ascent to the top of the Steam chartssince its Early Access launch on Xbox and PC last week and all the viral accusations that developer Pocketpair ripped off Pokémon designs and used stolen Pokémon assets, it seemed quite likely one of Pokémon’s stewards was going to comment at some point. I wasn’t expecting it just under a week after Palworld’s release, admittedly, but here we are.
The Pokémon Company, which oversees publishing, marketing, and licensing for the colossal jointly owned franchise, posteda brief statement on its websiteon Wednesday evening. In it, the firm announced its intent to investigate “another company’s game released in January 2024” —Palworld, clearly — and said it plans to “take appropriate measures,” if necessary.
“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,” wrote the publisher.
“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.”
In the days following its launch,Palworld has been embroiled in controversy, with artists and gamers on social media sites claiming that its developers committed plagiarism. The full explainer I linked to above goes over everything in close detail, but the TL;DR is that at the moment, there’s not conclusive, concrete proof of any wrongdoing.
here’s the CEO of Pocketpair talking about using AI to bypass copyright, generating fakemons with it, calling AI: Art Imposter a real-time image generation game, and being excited for games powered by GPT-4 pic.twitter.com/79xwZr0yEIJanuary 19, 2024
Some of these claims point to Pocketpair CEO, Takuro Mizobe’s previous X (formerly Twitter) posts explaining how an AI generator could be used to create “Fakemon” to bypass copyright.
However, Mizobe has refuted these AI and copyright allegations saying that Palworld characters were designed by a single “new graduate” (ThanksDot eSports). Once again, there is no proof that the Palworld developers utilized AI to create characters.
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Everyone’s been waiting to see how Nintendo or The Pokémon Company would respond to the situation, as the former is infamous for its historically litigious lawyers who aggressively take legal action against those who use the companies' characters without permission. This was once more illustrated with theDMCA a modder recently received from Nintendoregarding a mod project that would bring Pokémon characters to Palworld.
For the time being, though, it seems The Pokémon Company is opting to take things slow and thoroughly investigate. It may also dislike the fact that the ultraviolent Palworld is “Pokémon with guns” based on that “We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world” bit at the end.
Notably, Pocketpair’s Mizobe recently said Palworld “cleared legal reviews,” and that no other studios or companies have taken action against Pocketpair.
“We make our games very seriously, and we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies,” Mizobe said whilespeaking with Automaton.
Previously, a Nintendo representativetold Bloombergthat the gaming giant “is aware of” Palworld. They chose not to comment, however. A spokeswoman for The Pokémon Company declined to comment as well, at the time.
Analysis: Will this amount to anything?
Surprised Pikachu face. That pretty much sums up my response to this, as while I didn’t expect The Pokémon Company to issue a statement this soon, I strongly doubted that it would tell us anything significant. And this one, despite all that firm wording, hasn’t.
The Pokémon Company is doing whatanypublisher would do, which is signal to the fans of its franchise that it’s keeping an eye on things and is ready to take action if it finds evidence that Pocketpair stole assets or infringed on its intellectual property. Ultimately, only time will tell if it actually does.
More interesting still is what any legal repercussions could mean for the millions of players who have been playing Palworld on PC and Xbox. Should The Pokémon Company feel the need to pursue legal action against Pocketpair, it could lead to Palworld getting removed from Steam and Xbox. It’s hard to say if this would mean refunding millions of players their purchases or if it would just become a swallowed cost that players could never reclaim. Either way, it could mean that people wouldn’t be able to play the creature-collecting survival game anymore.
Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once.Follow him on X(Twitter).
