RUMOR: Former Palworld dev claims designs were changed to look more like Pokémon
Let me take a Pikachu
We’re in for literally years’ worth of legal battles, as just last month, Nintendo and Pokémon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc., the developer of Palworld.
Ever since Palworld was first revealed, people had been comparing the game to Pokémon. Nintendo and Pokémon Co. said they would look into the game to see if there were actually any instances of copyright infringement or other unlawful doings, and clearly both companies now feel that’s the case.
This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld infringes multiple patent rights. While we wait to see how that plays out, there have been some very heavy accusations from a former Palworld dev that certainly doesn’t paint the studio in a positive light.
A former developer from Pocketpair is now saying that Pal designs in Palworld were intentionally changed to look even more similar to Pokémon prior to the game’s launch. Supposedly the studio wanted Pals to mimic the look of the top 100 Pokémon, which was enough to make this one employee quit. After the employee left, he said the Pal designs were indeed changed to more closely resemble Pokémon.
It’s important to note that this is just one accusations from a former employee, so please don’t take it as fact. That said, if this does turn out to be true and other employees corroborate, Pocketpair could be in for an even tougher road ahead.
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tendonin
6d agoI find it odd that the conversation around the lawsuit still revolves around the plagiarism accusations. It's a patent case, and the exclusion of any copyright claims is almost a tacit admission that they *didn't* quite cross the line and others could rip off Pokemon too if they wanted. It's just, you know, bereft of creative integrity. And in some cases, that's still legal.
metazoxan
5d agoI'm starting to wonder if the patent suit is more because Nintendo wasn't able to build a a case for stolen designs so they just grasped at straws.
But really this is more than just a rumor. I remember hearing ages ago something that looked like a copy of Mewtwo was found in the filed.
I believe it was a prototype design for than "love" pal. Meaning they copied Mewtwo ... And then iterated on it until they felt it was legally different enough to avoid a lawsuit.
Now personally I don't think they deserve to get sued over that. Most pokeclones don't even take the time to iterate that much.
But Pal world fans need to admit the game is not some great triumph over Nintendo... It's a crafting survival game that took some of the most popular Pokemon and made varients of then to piggy back off Pokemons success.
If pal world wasn't known as "pokemon with guns" it wouldn't have done half as well.
Personally I don't hate the game but it's just not for me.
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