Palworld: The Controversial Game Facing Legal Scrutiny

A wave of criticism has erupted on social media towards Pocketpair’s Palworld, an Early Access survival game where players can collect creatures called “Pals.” Many argue that Palworld shamelessly copied the design of Pocket Monsters, and on January 25, 2024, Nintendo/TPC released a statement regarding the controversy:

“We have received numerous inquiries regarding a game released by another studio in January 2024. We did not grant permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or resources in this game. We intend to investigate this matter and take appropriate action to address any infringement of intellectual property rights related to Pokémon. We will continue to nurture the world of Pokémon and work towards uniting the world through Pokémon in the future.” – The Pokemon Company, January 25, 2024

As a result, many are wondering whether Nintendo can sue for copyright infringement or if Palworld’s creators can avoid a lawsuit from The Pokemon Company.

Legal Proceedings: The Pokemon Company vs. Palworld and Pocketpair

Palworld sold over 8 million copies in the first week of its Early Access release, quickly gaining popularity on Xbox and PC platforms. However, the resemblance between Pal’s design and Pokemon led to accusations that Pocketpair had “copied” Game Freak’s artwork. Some even called for a boycott of Palworld.

Others pointed to Pocketpair’s use of artificial intelligence technology in their game “AI: Art Imposter,” which had long been criticized by artists and creators for using their work in machine learning models without permission. However, many Palworld players defended Pocketpair, claiming that the game is different enough to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit.

In their press statement on January 25, The Pokemon Company declared that they will investigate any use of their intellectual property in Palworld. This is something that has been done in the past to shut down countless fan-made games, but can it apply to Pocketpair and Palworld? Nintendo’s legal position is somewhat unclear, and evidence of plagiarism will have to be solidly proven.

While The Pokemon Company dominates the creature-collection genre, many other games have taken on this archetype. Similar games like Cassette Beasts and TemTem draw distinct inspiration from the iconic franchise, while others (such as the Megami Tensei series) allow players to collect creatures in the form of demons since 1987.

While The Pokemon Company can protect trademark names and characters of Pocket Monsters, they cannot do the same for a specific artistic style or gameplay mechanics. Therefore, many artists have created “Fakemon” – their own creatures that utilize a similar artistic style to those seen in Game Freak’s games. This has led to the creation of games like Cassette Beasts/TemTem.

Some of Pal’s designs exhibit significant similarities to existing Pokemon (Image via Pocketpair/The Pokemon Company)

While The Pokemon Company can file a lawsuit if an entire creature design is copied in another work, accusing creators of plagiarism is a different matter. Although some artworks have been subject to legal action for being recognized as plagiarized in the past

The source of the article is from the blog radiohotmusic.it