The Pokemon Company releases a statement regarding Palworld: Inquiries Regarding Other Companies’ Games
他社ゲームに関するお問い合わせについて｜株式会社ポケモン｜The Pokémon Company
Here’s a archive link, https://archive.ph/oT1L6
If only they put the same effort into the most recent Pokemon games that they do into making sure nobody else makes a better version.
"We know, stop writing us."
Is nobody aware of Cassette Beasts? This isn't the first Pokémon clone that has been made. As long as you don't use Nintendo's IP, they can't go after you.
The idea of a Pokémon clone isn't protectable, but existing Pokémon are.
You can make a Pokémon clone with entirely novel monsters, but if a judge thinks they look too much like an existing Pokémon they're gonna have a problem.
That's really the issue. The creatures in the game, as I've seen pointed out in various places, are much closer in design to actual pokemon designs than in other poke-clone games, with some looking so close they might as well just be a regional form. I don't even know any of the pals' names but I can somewhat clearly recall seeing one that's basically "Luxray at home". I know the maker of the game has said he doesn't really value originality, but there's a difference between being unoriginal and straight-up plagiarism.
Cassette Beasts is such a good little gem. Concept, Art, everything is excellent, too bad it is so... small. Sure, it is priced accordingly, but I want more of it!
The music as well is so good on Cassette Beats.
Cassete beasts is awesome.
Abd let's nit forget corromon, lunar island, yokai watch.
And Temtem... Anyone remember Temtem?
I loved that game and thought about this a lot. I would argue Pokémon itself is just a Final Fantasy clone with the selectable party coming from the bestiary
We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world
"Anyway, here's another broken, lackluster game and the new Pokemon are a pile of garbage and a ring of keys."
I don't see Nintendo/Game Freak doing something about Palword. Due to Palworld's first trailer release two years ago. So if Nintendo/Game Freak was going to do something about Palworld. They had two years to do it.
In another hand, now that Palworld is successful, they sit on quite a lot of cash. And success make some unscrupulous people quite envious, and prone to sue.
Inquiries Regarding Other Companies’ Games
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 Pokémon Company
IMO there isn't anything.
If there was, then over the three years of development of Palworld, Nintendo would have lawyered up at some point. It's a Japanese company, so it'd be a local lawsuit even. We already know Nintendo isn't afraid of lawyering up, the Palworld Pokemon mod existed for like... 8 hours before getting DMCA'd the other day.
The statement says exactly that in my interpretation. "We have received a lot of emails telling us to look into this game. We know how to protect our brand. If there was any reason for us to intervene we would already have done it. Stop sending us reports."
I believe Pokémon and Pokemon-like games should coexist. They will naturally compete on one another, and each game will serve a separate audience.
Palworld isn't even that Pokemon-like, aside from some of the Pal's models, and type strengths/weaknesses. But that's basically where the similarities end. Palworld is an open world survival/crafting/base building game. Even the whole collecting monsters thing feeds directly into the base building aspect.
Maybe it's the Communist in me, but I don't get why some people are so eager for Nintendo to file a lawsuit. Nevermind whether it actually infringes anything, it isn't eating away at Pokemon's sales or anything. It plays very different, a little closer to Arceus than any traditional Pokemon game. I see it as a win. Maybe it will encourage Nintendo to take Pokemon in a more open world direction with more features.
They could develop different features to succeed in separate environments, over time filling different niches, until eventually they are unrecognisable as coming from the same source.
They def have available action against the Pokemon mod thats out there but the general premise of the game i doubt they will gen very far.
What this is really saying is "you people are insane, please stop writing us about it, we're aware, and fine, we're "looking into it" even though we were aware of this for a few years now and already checked with legal that there's nothing we can do unless the creators really messed up in some way."
Get fucked Nintendo. Get gapped actually.
25 fucking years to have done anything with your fucking series. 25 years.
They have nothing to stand on outside of the art if that is true, Else they would have shut down things that are very much closer in scope to pokemon (i.e. digimon, which they tried, and it was dropped, they cant own a art style or game play cycle.), this one doesnt even ape the idea wholesale there is no evolution but the breeding mixes types. And Arc and Zelda would have a few words but again, you cant own a gameplay loop, I mean ask PUBG how that went for them.
They can take them to court if they find concrete evidence of asset theft, which is what their PR says.
Dragon Quest 5 came out before Pokemon and had monster joining you to fight by your side, ain't much they can do about the concept so as you said it's about the art/monster design.
their homepage looks like shit.
From what I hear, that's par for the course with most Japan-focussed websites
Nintendo fans are so weirdly protective of nintendo. Like... there have been death threats from pokemon fans over palworld and it just baffles me that someone would waste their life defending the honor of a multibillion dollar gaming company like that. Nintendo fans I say this with the utmost respect: Go the fuck outside.
Had a friend unironically trying to convince me that Palworld is evil because it brainwashes people into liking human enslavement and shooting at civilians.
His favourite game is Pokémon, a game where you bond with your fire lizard by pitting it against other animals in a government-sanctioned tournament.
Of course he's also one of those people who spends hours lamenting the state of current Pokémon games, while also buying both versions of each game at day 1.
Pokemon is famous for being the first game to employ child psychologists in its development Team, to analyse what young boys like the most, and to feed that to them.
Your friend, is playing, due to corporate manipulation, when they were young, which triggered all the things in them, they wanted to trigger.
Dark, but true. I'll try and find a source on this later, when I have some time.
I really like palworld and never cared about pokemon at all. After playing palworld for some times, i looked up what pokemon is even up to, after over 20 years of experience. And apparently they released the absolutely most laughable pokemon game on the swith last year.
Neither of those things are actually encouraged by the game. Attacking civilians causes guards to come after you, and nothing in the UI indicates you can capture humans (you don't get a catch % when holding a ball and targeting them like you do with monsters). It's only when you do throw a ball at them that you find out it is possible, but the catch rate sucks and they're not worth using.
Meanwhile it's made abundantly clear that Pokemon are sentient, so the brainwashing and dogfighting rings aren't any more ethical if you want to argue that way.
Alternately, it's a game. I'm against war but I play plenty of war games.
Those are the headlining features that make the game unique.
I legitimately know someone who speaks about Nintendo religiously. Like, he says "Miyamoto almighty" and I reeeeaaaaally wanna believe he's doing it ironically, but I don't know if even he recognizes it as ironic now. He is defensive of every of nintendo's actions, all of them, justifying everything they've done while condemning other companies for doing the same. It looks like nationalism applied to a specific corporation
Like, I'm a big nintendo fan, but I cannot fathom the zealotry that I have personally witnessed coming from this person
I have a switch only for my nephew. My last console was a gamecube. I thought about buying mario kart, everyone loves mario kart. It was 60 or so bucks and i didn't buy it, I bought it second hand. I made a forum post in a nintendo sub and asked why a 9 year old game is still 60 bucks and why they try to sell their dlc on the select schreen. You know that game for children. I caught so much shit for that and they called me a troll and that 60 bucks for the game is very fair and i should just buy the dlc ab shut up. Somehow the overwatch community is less toxic than Nintendo fanboys
It's jarring to see people are taking such pains over what's at worst a knockoff. Have they never played with knockoff toys?
I'm a die hard Nintendo fan. Been playing Nintendo since I was like 4.
Pokémon is one of my favourite gaming series ever.
However, I also play games that are basically Pokémon but with a different name. So long as there's not actual copyright being broken, who cares? Pokémon is an insanely successful franchise, if other companies want to try using the idea for their games in hopes of success. Go for it! It's fun seeing all the variants.
I get why people hate seeing their favourite game 'ripped off', but if Nintendo see it as an issue, they'll deal with it themselves. People need to chill out, I'm pretty sure Nintendo are capable of fighting their own battles. It's not like they're a small company of 10 people who might of not seen the game.
Pokemon is famous for being the first game to employ child psychologists in its development Team, to analyse what young boys like the most, and to feed that to them.
You my friend, are playing, due to corporate manipulation, when you were young, which triggered all the things in you, they wanted to trigger.
Dark, but true. I'll try and find a source on this later when I have some time.
Nintendo doesn't even make particularly good Pokémon games anymore so it's extra weird that somebody would defend them.
My friend made a Pokémon game in high school and it was better than anything that was available at the time from Nintendo. Mostly because the game was actually balanced and you didn't necessarily win every match.
There was someone the other day going on about how violent Palworld is and you have to be a psychopath to enjoy that, so they're just going to stick to Counterstrike instead.
I have no words.
As a Nintendo fan personally I completely agree Who ever says Nintendo is perfect is so wrong
They are so close yet they countine to do stupid things that make zero sense
Agree. I know it's way too similar in several aspects (saw a Vtuber ask repeatedly "what game am I playing?"), but if an Early access is doing better than your megamillions company, start asking yourselves some questions.
I'm not a Nintendo fan, but:
How is it bad faith to point out the comparative scale of the companies involved? I don't think imitating Disney and imitating small independent artists ought to be treated the same way. One might argue this is "principles" but to me that's lacking perspective.
Why does this read the same to me as "I am not racist, but:"