From the moment that Palworld was publically unveiled, the comparisons of the game to Pokemon have been rampant. Despite that, Palworld's development team, Pocketpair, has stated that they're not concerned with any negative legal action, as the game is not infringing upon Pokemon, nor other IP copyrights. Meanwhile, the former legal team lead of The Pokemon Company expressed surprise at Palworld, saying he was surprised, "it got that far" when the game was released.

Further adding fuel to the fire was a Twitter user by the name of Byofrog, who began directly comparing Palworld models to Pokemon models, showing similarities between the two. While all of these comments and reactions have been from the public, Nintendo themselves haven't made any statement, until tonight. The Pokemon Company put out a short press release, specifically about Palworld. The full comment is 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.

For now, there doesn't appear to be any immediate action that The Pokemon Company will take, but only time will tell if any sort of investigation leads to legal action.

Source

 

[SylverReZ]

Nintendo are nothing but a greedy shitty corpo who gives zero fucks about the fans, no matter how many "family friendly" games they do, that's the truth

Agreed. They never have cared about their fans around when the Switch was there.

 

[lolcatzuru]

There’s tons I can look at and say “oh hey that looks like X & Y smashed together”, but for singular mons? At best I can say Relaxasaur is a blue Goodra without the extra details.

and also, isnt at all like goodra.

 

[The Catboy]

So you DIDN'T quote the wrong person on the retroarch thread. Well then. Palworld is just a stupid pokemon knockoff that I hope will fail like the others. (Like digimon, or fossil fighters)

You clearly didn’t play the game or played next to none of it. Anyone who actually plays the game can tell you just how wrong this twitter opinion is. If you didn’t play the game, then your opinion is invalid, especially when you are 13 year old clearly quoting what they read on twitter.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Palworld is a phase. They will go back to the good game soon

what did they do to you?

You want an example? They did the ice cream pokemon line, that it iself is a crime against humanity.

Also, they did Ed Sheeran, an even worse crime against human kind.

 

[SylverReZ]

You do it first

Your opinions are invalid, you always give your views based on what other people say on Twitter. You seem to not pay any real attention to detail. Grow some thick skin.

You clearly didn’t play the game or played next to none of it. Anyone who actually plays the game can tell you just how wrong this twitter opinion is. If you didn’t play the game, then your opinion is invalid, especially when you are 13 year old clearly quoting what they read on twitter.

Agreed.

 

[chrisrlink]

I can see this fron't page article being closed soon it's a train wreck

 

[therabbitofthenorth]

So you DIDN'T quote the wrong person on the retroarch thread. Well then. Palworld is just a stupid pokemon knockoff that I hope will fail like the others. (Like digimon, or fossil fighters)

Pokémon is shit. Really always has been shit, but it’s easy to look back on it with nostalgia goggles because we were dumb kids back then. Unfortunately for you some people don’t grow up.

Also can’t really call Digimon a failure when they’ve made over $6B and continue to be highly relevant across the world.

 

[Xzi]

Game has sold over 19 million copies in under two weeks, not counting Game Pass players. For comparison, Scarlet/Violet took a year to get to 23 million, so it looks like Palworld will get there a lot faster. Deservedly so.

I continue to be impressed by how much content there is in the early access release, even if there are still plenty of kinks to work out and things they could add to make the world feel more alive. I've put 80 hours into this $26 game, with more still to come. Meanwhile, some recent $70 games have 8 hours of content or less.

 

[The Catboy]

Pokémon is shit. Really always has been shit, but it’s easy to look back on it with nostalgia goggles because we were dumb kids back then. Unfortunately for you some people don’t grow up.

Also can’t really call Digimon a failure when they’ve made over $6B and continue to be highly relevant across the world.

Bro, Pokémon Gen 5 was and is peak
If you’ve not played any of Gen 5, please invest some time in them. They hold up in every department; graphics, music, sprite work, world building, the mons, story, everything. GameFreak peaked at Gen 5, this is a fact

(The ice cream Pokémon is stupid but at least it’s not the entire game like S/V)

 

[KuroTheBang]

Nintendo: We bring sh!tty Pokemon games year after year
Also Nintendo: *insert pikachu meme when some small companies bring way better games than themselves*

But to be honest, I don't see Nintendo as the main problem here. I see the turds buying the sh!tty made and/or remake after remake after remake as the main issue here

 

[retKHAAAN]

Game has sold over 19 million copies in under two weeks, not counting Game Pass players. For comparison, Scarlet/Violet took a year to get to 23 million, so it looks like Palworld will get there a lot faster. Deservedly so.

I continue to be impressed by how much content there is in the early access release, even if there are still plenty of kinks to work out and things they could add to make the world feel more alive. I've put 80 hours into this $26 game, with more still to come. Meanwhile, some recent $70 games have 8 hours of content or less.

To be fair, Scarlet/Violet was limited to a single platform so accessibility itself prevents an apples to apples comparison.

However, if Pokémon had been innovating in any meaningful way there wouldn’t be such a huge gap for Palworld to come in and fill. I have yet to play Palworld but it honestly looks way more interesting to me than anything Pokémon since the last game I played through (Ultra Moon).

 

[SeventhSon7]

my take on Palword: it's weird that it has natural looking environments inhabited by cartoon beings, it clashes too much

 

[Noctosphere]

Idk why, but i'm pretty sure that The Pokemon Company didn't "make a statement". They only relayed Big N's statement