The Pokemon Company is Launching Investigations on Palworld for IP Infringement 

The Pokemon Company has released an official statement concerning Palworld, whose creature designs sparked controversy for the striking resemblance to the adorable critters from the renowned Nintendo series.

In the statement, The Pokemon Company says that they “intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts” that relate to any possible infringement on their intellectual property.

Although the company did not specifically mention Palworld by name in the official statement, it is clear that they are referring to Palworld in response to the allegations that the game is plagiarising and possibly even stealing 3D assets from Pokemon.

The full statement reads 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.

Over the last week, the newly launched Palworld took the gaming world by storm for its absurd concept of “Pokemon With Guns” in a survival setting, breaking record after record.

Most recently, Palworld overtook Valve’s FPS titan Counter-Strike 2 in player count and is now ranked as the second highest concurrent player peak in Steam’s history.

The survival title has also sold over 8 million copies in less than 6 days since its early access launch on Steam and Xbox Game Pass on January 19, 2024.

Despite major successes, developer Pocketpair has received many accusations of plagiarizing Pokemon and utilizing generative AI for its creature designs.

This “pal” from #Palword seems like it was probably a rip of serperior and primarina from #Pokemon pic.twitter.com/g8L8vBjbDG

— byo (@byofrog) January 21, 2024

Amidst the plagiarism accusations, Pocketpair was also allegedly stealing assets as users on the internet compared the in-game 3D models of Palworld to Pokemon, pointing out their nearly identical proportions.

In a recent interview with Automaton, Pocketpair CEO and Palworld Game Director Takuro Mizobe said that the game had cleared legal reviews.

“We make our games very seriously, and we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies.”

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