The Pokémon Company has issued a statement about “another company’s game released in January 2024”, a thinly veiled reference to the breakout hit Palworld, AKA “Pokémon with guns”. Is a copyright infringement suit coming at Palworld developer Pocket Pair? Well, maybe?
The statement from The Pokémon Company reads:
“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.”
In other words, “Yes, yes, we’ve heard about Palworld, you don’t need to keep emailing us. No, it’s not a Pokémon game, and if we think they’ve stolen our stuff then we’ll sue. Can you stop bugging us now?”
On the surface level this might sound like The Pokémon Company is coming for Pocket Pair, or that they think Pocket Pair has broken copyright, but there’s actually nothing of the sort in the statement.
With Palworld selling millions upon millions of copies with its early access release on Steam and Xbox, many have been quick to point out just how close the game’s creature designs are to Pokémon, and how liberally it lifts other Pokémon design elements and tropes. Some have even compared the 3D models between Palworld and recent Pokémon games on Switch, theorising that their similarities are so close that developer Pocket Pair could have used Game Freak’s assets as a base model and made tweaks to them, instead of imitations from the ground up.
is that a Pokémon?
If that’s the case, then that would certainly be grounds for some kind of legal action, but The Pokémon Company is not there yet, and it’s not clear if they think they have a case at this point. This will be a very different situation to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company handing out DCMA takedowns on fan mods that use their IP, with an actual lawsuit requiring that they have a reasonable expectation of success, and therefore more meaningful analysis of what Pocket Pair has done, both of the end result and the creative process through discovery of emails and historical data.
But again, The Pokémon Company has not stated that they are taking legal action. Palworld has been in development for several years, with trailers and announcements leading up to the Early Access launch. During that period, there was nothing that allowed The Pokémon Company or Nintendo to force them to stop making Palworld. It’s only now that the game is actually out that eyebrows might be being raise.
Beyond that, both The Pokémon Company and Pocket Pair are both Japanese companies, and so this whole process will actually run through the Japanese courts and legal process. Japan has no provision for Fair Use on the books, for example, so there’s possibly a different burden upon both companies than we might expect for a US or European lawsuit.
We’ll obviously let you know if something does actually happen. In the meantime, feel free to keep playing that Pokémon with guns survival game.
Source: The Pokémon Company
