From the moment that Palworld was publically unveiled, the comparisons of the game to Pokemon have been rampant. Despite that, Palworld's development team, Pocketpair, has stated that they're not concerned with any negative legal action, as the game is not infringing upon Pokemon, nor other IP copyrights. Meanwhile, the former legal team lead of The Pokemon Company expressed surprise at Palworld, saying he was surprised, "it got that far" when the game was released.

Further adding fuel to the fire was a Twitter user by the name of Byofrog, who began directly comparing Palworld models to Pokemon models, showing similarities between the two. While all of these comments and reactions have been from the public, Nintendo themselves haven't made any statement, until tonight. The Pokemon Company put out a short press release, specifically about Palworld. The full comment is as follows:

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.

For now, there doesn't appear to be any immediate action that The Pokemon Company will take, but only time will tell if any sort of investigation leads to legal action.

Source

 

[DarkCoffe64]

From my understanding of corpo speak, that there reads as "We don't care and won't do nothing about this, especially because legally there's no case for us. Give us your money".

Regarding the model thing, aside that the lieturd lied about the models being "stolen" from them GF games, hear me out: If someone makes a lion-like creature, and another does another lion-like creature, if the two end up being similar to each other... whodathunkit, uh?

I don't care how polished it appears. You can't polish a turd. The game sucks goats balls. Only the mentally ill would support it.

Hold up, I'm confused, you're referring to the latest Pokemon games there, right? 'Cus it sure fits the description

Also, regarding mentally ill people and such, with your latest replies, you sure sound like one. Get off the internet, it's bad for you, have a nap, sleepy sleep.

 

[ertaboy356b]

speaking of this palworld does this game have any minecraft/digimon caring stuff it in? cause if it does i'm not going bother with it. still it's not like any other people are going mod it. since the big N is like if you mod our shit you going down then river to BUBBA's PALACE.

You need to feed them in some form but that can be automated once you have your ranch set up.

 

[Bunjolio]

Same boat, well at least up until Gen 5, afterwards... Just no.

i grew up with gen 6+

 

[raylgo]

I've played both Pokemon and Dragon Quest games but never thought "this DQ monster looks like a pokemon". They art style is so distinct and unique. I'm seeing the DQ vs Pokemon comparison and I think this is 2 different artists being told to draw a generic dragon, a rock creature, a catterpillar, a bat, etc etc. Dont think its fair to say that one copied from another when they look different enough.

but some monsters in palworld are just pokemon made slightly different. Give this Electabuzz more bunny-looking features. Make this latios and latias look like a jet. There are a lot of monster catching games and none of them made me think "hey this guy is a pokemon" aside from palworld. Let nintendo sort this one out.

 

[BlueFox gui]

Now look at the Gen 1 Pokédex and some of the Dragon Quest monsters.

no shit sherlock!
one thing i'll say about that, at least pokemon devs tried to make them look different, palworld designs would be a lot better if they had their own art style instead of just copying pokerman artstyle, at least the game itself is better, if you show it to a judge he will think pokemon SV is the bootleg copy

 

[Xzi]

but some monsters in palworld are just pokemon made slightly different. Give this Electabuzz more bunny-looking features. Make this latios and latias look like a jet. There are a lot of monster catching games and none of them made me think "hey this guy is a pokemon" aside from palworld. Let nintendo sort this one out.

Nintendo doesn't get to be the arbiter for what is and isn't infringement. If they did, they'd sue every RPG ever made since they all have some sort of animal + element designs in them. If you take parts from three different Pokemon and stick them all on one body, it's now legally distinct from any one Pokemon. Same deal if you rearrange all the words in a given book to create a new story, or if you mix three different songs from different bands together.

"Slightly different" is enough, it's not a high bar.

 

[chrisrlink]

I don't care how polished it appears. You can't polish a turd. The game sucks goats balls. Only the mentally ill would support it.

I smell a troll and it smells like a horse's arse which just farted

 

[raylgo]

Nintendo doesn't get to be the arbiter for what is and isn't infringement. If they did, they'd sue every RPG ever made since they all have some sort of animal + element designs in them. If you take parts from three different Pokemon and stick them all on one body, it's now legally distinct from any one Pokemon. Same deal if you rearrange all the words in a given book to create a new story, or if you mix three different songs from different bands together.

"Slightly different" is enough, it's not a high bar.

With all the weird things they turned into Pokemon, theres bound to be some similarities. Bunnies, Rats, Bats, Birds, etc. But look at how different Dragon Quest and Pokemon make those. The art style is different. like authors using similar words, there has to be a distinct style to the prose of each author to be unique.

Also I'm sure Pokemon are copyrighted so comparing them to words in a book isnt a good argument. I'm looking at monsters in temtem and they are way different. But I guess palworld has also thought this through enough to push through. I'm sure nintendo wont find any grounds for legal action. They'll just have to accept that the pokemon children are now adults and want pokemon with guns

 

[Xzi]

They'll just have to accept that the pokemon children are now adults and want pokemon with guns

The guns as a meme are probably what initially attracted a lot of the younger audience to the game, actually. I was sold more on the idea of real-time Pokemon with Dark Souls rolling, plus the automation aspect of base management. Regardless, it's an early access game that launched with fewer critical bugs and performance issues than Scarlet and Violet, despite trying something completely new with the monster catching genre. If it were any other franchise, fans would welcome the competition and expect the original developers to step up their own game in response, but this is GameFreak we're talking about here. Pokemon fans know they won't change a damn thing about how they operate, because it's the number one grossing franchise in the world. The hopelessness is the real reason they're sending so many desperate messages.

 

[Izual Urashima]

The lies are planted and it's quite funny seeing how deep they're rooted. But while everyone is focusing on the obvious "Palworld is ripping Pokémon's designs", I'll just point something before going back to sipping my coffee.

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 wording is very interesting in this message, if you're looking closely. What does it says ?

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.

Of course, it's obvious it's talking about Palworld there, but there could be other games that are concerned, and The Pokémon Company can easily shift the blame by dropping a lawsuit on some unrelated, other game, while everyone thinks it's gonna fall on Palworld, which could make me laugh a lot.

We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.

Classic legalese scare tactic. They're forced by law to defend their rights should something impede on them enough anyway, so it doesn't matter if they do it or not. They just decide to announce it publicly to ease the masses and to scare those who believe they're infringing the law. But again, they don't mention Palworld. They're gonna investigate something, which could (and probably will) be unrelated to the first part, and let their scare tactic do the rest.

So, from there, what could happen ?

1| TPC investigates Palworld, sees enough plagiarism in their eyes to attack, build a case and go to law. However, what is enough for them is not enough for the laws, be it under Japanese, American, copyright or trademark laws, so they lose and it creates a precedent that can hurt Pokémon in the long term.
2| TPC expects point 1 and wants to avoid long-term losses, so they investigate and tackle another, unrelated project linked to Pokémon that everyone forgot because of Palworld (any popular fangame or mod can be targetted here).
3| TPC does nothing, scare tactics work and Palworld announces a design change for some pals.
4| TPC does nothing, scare tactics doesn't work and nothing changes.

There might be other possibilities, but it's 5AM and my coffee cup is empty. See ya later, folks !

 

[Jayro]

It feels like Pal world really set the bar for the next pokemon game... Pokémon Legends Arceus did for me.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I don't see this going anywhere.

The only thing they have to stand on is the allegations that Palworld ripped models from Pokemon.
And whether true or false, that is likely going to be difficult to prove in court.
Granted, many of the models do look very similar to Pokemon, but it's not like Pokemon designs are that unique to begin with, the vast majority are based on existing animals, often doing little to differentiate it from said animal.

Having animals based on the same real life animals looking similar to eachother is hardly surprising.

I will say that I don't think those allegations are true. They certainly took a lot of inspiration from Pokemon. But then, getting inspired by the work of others is what art is all about, and isn't against the law as far as I know, as long as you make it look different enough that it can't be confused for the "real thing". Gameplay wise, Palworld certainly seems to have many differences from Pokemon, and the art style of the pals is distinct enough that nobody could confuse it with Ken Sugimori's creations.

It is a very obvious Pokemon clone at the end of the day, but only because Pokemon essentially invented the monster catching genre (unless anybody knows of earlier examples? I'd be curious to hear) and basically set the standard for what a monster catching game should be. That doesn't mean they own the rights to the genre, though. Every monster catching game tries to do something different from Pokemon but inevitably gets compared to Pokemon or called a clone anyways, that's just how it is.

It seems like these guys have the money to stand against Nintendo's lawyers if need be, considering how popular their game is. So I don't think we need to worry about the game being pulled.

Worst case, Palworld will have to change the design of the pals, which may result in the game temporarily being pulled. They probably have a plan B in case this happens.

 

[Sir Tortoise]

the byofrog thing is fake, they admitted to like faking and rescaling meshes/models to look more similar, check their only tweet View attachment 416106

Not their only tweet. You're viewing Twitter without an account, I guess? That blocks you from viewing tweets except ones you're directly linked to, I recommend Nitter for when you need to check something without having a Twitter account

Post automatically merged: Jan 26, 2024

From reading this thread, I think people are misunderstanding the accusation here. It's not that the designs are similar - they obviously are, but whatever, they're different enough. "Inspiration" probably covers them.

But the models in several places appear to be extremely similar to the Pokémon models, at a base level. Yes, they've been scaled differently. Yes, they have different features on top, like eyes, ears, whatever. It just looks pretty likely that the Pokémon models were used as a base and then tweaked. That they made edits on top doesn't change that. It's like painting over someone else's painting and trying to sell it as your own, the brushwork will be the same in many places you didn't cover entirely with new ears and eyes. Even if you then stretch the painting a bit, and even if the original painting was made by a rich asshole.

 

[therabbitofthenorth]

Pokémon's problem at its core is GameFreak, even if Nintendo made a better top of the line system, even if GameFreak somehow moved the franchise off Nintendo's consoles, Pokémon will still be the worse game.

Pokémon’s problem is the constant greed shown by all members of TPC. GF *can* make good games, but they’re complacent being stuck on rehashing the same mechanics repeatedly because “it just works”, and Nintendo/Creatures are both more than happy for the merch sales that expedited releases causes.

Pokemon essentially invented the monster catching genre (unless anybody knows of earlier examples? I'd be curious to hear)

Shin Megami Tensei (1987) immediately comes to mind, Dragon Quest V (1992) had monster taming mechanics, and Robotrek (1994) even had balls to capture the creatures. The Digimon V-Pets (1997), while debuting slightly later was made alongside Pokémon with neither knowing of the other until Pokémon beat them to market. You cannot churn out LCD toys in just a year.

 

[The Catboy]

Pokémon’s problem is the constant greed shown by all members of TPC. GF *can* make good games, but they’re complacent being stuck on rehashing the same mechanics repeatedly because “it just works”, and Nintendo/Creatures are both more than happy for the merch sales that expedited releases causes.


Shin Megami Tensei (1987) immediately comes to mind, Dragon Quest V (1992) had monster taming mechanics, and Robotrek (1994) even had balls to capture the creatures. The Digimon V-Pets (1997), while debuting slightly later was made alongside Pokémon with neither knowing of the other until Pokémon beat them to market. You cannot churn out LCD toys in just a year.

Dragon Quest (Warriors) 4 in 1993 also had monster catching elements.
As I said before in this thread, Pokémon is far the first or original, it just won Capitalism.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Pokémon’s problem is the constant greed shown by all members of TPC. GF *can* make good games, but they’re complacent being stuck on rehashing the same mechanics repeatedly because “it just works”, and Nintendo/Creatures are both more than happy for the merch sales that expedited releases causes.


Shin Megami Tensei (1987) immediately comes to mind, Dragon Quest V (1992) had monster taming mechanics, and Robotrek (1994) even had balls to capture the creatures. The Digimon V-Pets (1997), while debuting slightly later was made alongside Pokémon with neither knowing of the other until Pokémon beat them to market. You cannot churn out LCD toys in just a year.

I should clarify, I mean monster catching/taming as a genre, where monster catching/taming is the main focus, not simply as a small aspect of a game. I'm sure there are many early examples of the latter, but the concept didn't seem to be that fleshed out to base an entire game around until Pokemon came along. Not familiar with most of the games you mentioned, though.

Tiger Electronics seemed more than capable of churning out LCD toys in far less time than that

 

[Bladexdsl]

nintenDOH are just jealous someone made a better game than their shitty pokeCRAP

 

[therabbitofthenorth]

I should clarify, I mean monster catching/taming as a genre, where monster catching/taming is the main focus, not simply as a small aspect of a game. I'm sure there are many early examples of the latter, but the concept didn't seem to be that fleshed out to base an entire game around until Pokemon came along. Not familiar with most of the games you mentioned, though.

As I said, SMT, whose core game loop revolves around recruiting monsters to your team to fight in turn based combat, is more or less what started the genre. DQ4/5 and every game following featured that as well (to a lesser but still significant capacity). Robotrek’s entire gameplay consists of catching enemies in balls to fight for you. Sound familiar? So at least 2 series had the concept of taming monsters to fight with you, one of which had balls to catch them in.

Tiger Electronics seemed more than capable of churning out LCD toys in far less time than that

That’s because Tiger Electronics mostly handled the technology. The hard part is the art direction and design. Tamogatchis came out only 9 months after Pokémon and had been worked on since 1995. So around a 1.5-2 year production cycle. Digimon came out about 6 months after Tamogatchi, indicating it would have been in production for around 1.5-2 years after that. Which would roughly place it alongside the early stages of Tamogatchi, and the late stages of Pokémon (before it was announced).

 

[chrisrlink]

nintenDOH are just jealous someone made a better game than their shitty pokeCRAP

well true the last two gens were utter garbage *except PLA I liked 6/7 only cause of megas but that was it the last good games (plot wise was gen 4)

 

[jeremy2020]

I should clarify, I mean monster catching/taming as a genre, where monster catching/taming is the main focus, not simply as a small aspect of a game. I'm sure there are many early examples of the latter, but the concept didn't seem to be that fleshed out to base an entire game around until Pokemon came along. Not familiar with most of the games you mentioned, though.

Tiger Electronics seemed more than capable of churning out LCD toys in far less time than that

Could you move those goalposts a bit further, please?