Nintendo will take “appropriate action” in cases of Pokemon plagiarism

The undeniable similarity between the creatures of Buddy World and the fauna of Pokemon begins a cycle of accusations and excuses.

Without a doubt, this is the most talked about game at the moment. Released in Early Access on January 19th on Steam and Xbox (and also available on Game Pass), it rose to the top of the Steam charts in an unusual way. free game. What was known from the start as “Pokémon with Guns” has already sold over five million units and reached Peak of 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam.

From the very first moment, the similarities between Nintendo’s million-dollar franchise and the Pocketpair game raised alarm bells due to the similarities not only of the character designs, but also the similarities in development. Although Palworld is more focused on survival, hunting buddies, as with Pokémon, is an important part of the game.

In the past, the Pokémon Company has made many games based on its popularity disappear, such as “Pokémon Uranium” or “Pokénet”. But in this case the link is not open, so everything becomes more complicated. Differences in mechanics (Pallies are raised not to fight, but to work on farms) raise doubts about the relevance of “Palworld”. In fact, “Pokemon” is already inspired by previous sagas such as “Shin Megami Tensei” in everything related to hunting and training monsters, but the ideas cannot be registered, only the specific mechanics.

However, there is another aspect where “Palworld” really goes into swampy territory: the modeling of the Pokémon themselves, which some fans claim could have been taken from games such as “Pokémon Sword”, “Shield”, “Pokémon Scarlet” and “Purple”. . Some fans, such as Twitter @byofrog made comparisons somewhat more comprehensive and confirmed that some of the buddies have identical models to their respective Pokémon.

The accusations became so aggressive (Takuro Mizobe, the company’s CEO, said they received death threats) that the company I had to refuse them

. Although many artists and design experts have stated that the virtually identical models could not have been the result of chance, Mizobe admitted that generative artificial intelligence was used to develop projectsand that’s where the coincidences could come from.

The Pokémon Company’s response

Of course, the reaction from The Pokémon Company was not long in coming. In a statement posted on their website, they confirm that they have not given permission to any other company to use their designs and that they intend to “investigate and take appropriate action.” The reason for this response is obvious as they claim that they have “received a lot of feedback on another company’s game released in January 2024.”

In parallel with the accusations and defense of those involved, an equally meaningful conversation has erupted among fans: it is questionable whether perhaps “Palworld” is a good example of what The Pokémon Company failed to develop or at least diversify its properties, and we had to wait for third parties to come up with refreshing ideas. Now we can only wait for the consequences.

Title: Pocketpair

In Hatak | This artificial intelligence turns any word into a Pokemon. And you can use it for free