In light of recent news, Palword faces lawsuit from Nintendo due to allegations of copying Pokémon in various capacities.
The Pokemon maker went against the indie studio, which Pocketpair to release a hefty statement. Developed by Pocketpair, the survival title is friendly and approachable graphics that draw players in but the variety in gameplay could cater to a wide audience.
Palworld faces lawsuit From the pokémon maker
Palworld faces a lawsuit from Nintendo on multiple grounds. The game has managed to draw in quite a series of controversies over the months since its release. First, the character designs were called into question.
The creatures one can capture and befriend or capture, utilize, or eat, are called “Pals”. They have designs reminiscent of Pokémon, a franchise owned by Nintendo with a fan following amounting to the millions.
Fans accused the studio of plagiarism and, in certain cases, of direct copying, from Pokémon.
This led to Nintendo issuing a public statement saying that they have not allowed any use of Pokémon intellectual property in the game. This statement was publicized on 25th January. 2024.
The controversy worsened when Poketpair utilized generative AI in the production of Palworld. Generative AI, although certainly impressive technology, is ethically questionable at best.
The CEO of Pocketpair, Takuro Mizobe, got into an altercation on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the ethicality of generative AI. He took a defensive stance on behalf of the generative AI community.
So far, no concrete evidence has been found regarding whether Palword did or did not utilize generative AI during its development.
The controversies regarding Palword would once again gain traction with Nintendo, the intellectual owner of Pokémon. They would file a lawsuit against Poketpair, and their game Palworld, on the grounds of copyright infringement.
Nintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld is slowly escalating towards different tangent
Pocketpair statement on Palworld lawsuit (Image: Pocketpair official blog)
For those who are uninitiated, Pokémon utilizes a mechanic where the player, hereafter referred to as the Trainer, uses your own Pokémon to damage and weaken a Pokémon for capture, before utilizing a gadget called a Poké Ball to capture the injured Pokémon.
If luck favors, the Pokémon will be captured by the player to utilize in further Pokémon battles. Otherwise, one has to do the whole ordeal all over again.
Poké balls come in different rarities and have different uses, with some Poké Balls being unavailable for use outside of certain regions and some having certain advantages or disadvantages in certain situations.
Palworld utilizes a similar mechanic, where the player can capture Pals using a gadget called Pal Spheres.
Pal Spheres also come in different rarities, however, it’s a simpler implementation compared to Poké Balls, as in this game, the rarer the Sphere, the better your chances are of catching the Pal.
Nintendo shares more on the Palworld’s lawsuit
Circling back to the lawsuit at hand, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, citing a copyright that cites:
“In a first mode, an aiming direction in a virtual space is determined based on a second operation input, and a player character is caused to launch.“
“In the aiming direction, an item that affects a field character disposed on a field in the virtual space, based on a third operation input.”
In layman’s terms, the action of throwing a capturing device at a creature to capture a creature or throwing a device to deploy a creature to fight has been patented by Nintendo on 2nd May 2024.
The official JUSTIA patent application explains more on the matter.
Now, the reason this lawsuit is controversial in and of itself is because this patent was filed by Nintendo about 4 months after the release of Palworld. Pocketpair has issued a statement addressing the lawsuit.
Now, on 19th September, Nintendo filed this lawsuit, which depends on a patent that was filed after the release of Palworld.
How this lawsuit unfolds remains to be seen.