Pocketpair’s CEO has commented on the plagiarism controversy surrounding their recent release, Palworld. But, he isn’t the only one who has chimed in.
As reported and translated by Video Games Chronicle, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe shared a statement on Twitter:
“We are currently receiving abusive and defamatory comments against our artists, in addition to tweets that appear to be death threats.
While we have received various opinions about Palworld, it is important to note that the supervision of all materials related to Palworld is conducted by a team, including myself. I bear the responsibility for the produced materials. I would appreciate it if these comments towards artists involved in Palworld would cease.”
It must be noted that some of the Twitter users accusing Pocketpair stated that they also received death threats as a result of the controversy. We would like to state here that we do not condone any death threats or harassment of any party involved in this story.
In an interview with Japanese site Automation, Mizobe stated that Palworld cleared legal review, and that the company does not intend any copyright infringement. While it’s strange he did not make this claim to the English speaking audience on Twitter, it’s significant, because Japanese copyright law is far harsher in letter and implementation than in the US.
Other parties have also been sharing their opinions on the matter. While the threads from Twitter users making arguments for plagiarism or AI generation are numerous, we will point to something else. Don Macgowan was Chief Legal Officer of The Pokemon Company for twelve years. When asked to comment by Stephen Totilo’s Gamefile, he had this to say:
“This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokémon. I’m just surprised it got this far.”
Video Games Chronicle sought other legal opinions, who talked about the legal standard that The Pokemon Company would have to reach to successfully prove copyright infringement. Attorney and YouTuber Richard Hoeg said:
“…evidence of actual assets being stolen is the kind of thing that is likely to make a more successful case. Simply being ‘inspired by’ existing designs, even if that goes so far as to use certain design rules (proportions, coloration, curve usage, eye size, etc) is generally not.”
David Hansel, an IP and digital media lawyer, was shown evidence found by Twitter user Byo that Pocketpair may have copied the 3D models used for making Pokemon on their game Palworld. He had this to say:
“It’s down to Nintendo to absolutely prove copying, not merely taking influence. It’s got to be obvious copying: you look at one picture, and you look at the other alongside it. The industry would’ve come to an end years ago if you weren’t allowed to take influence. You can’t have a monopoly on a certain style of artwork. It literally has to be copying.
The Pokémon Company will be looking for a smoking gun, and [these 3D model videos] could be gold dust for the lawyers, because they’re not just thematically similar. From what those videos show, it could be extremely compelling evidence of copying.
If those are original Pokémon models shown in those videos, then Nintendo should be home and dry in terms of demonstrating copying. That could be a smoking gun.”
To end, we should point out that the court of public opinion is not the proper sphere to prove IP infringement, or AI generation for that matter. While third parties can show their cases for their allegations, these are ultimately legal questions, that can take real life, formal recourse.
This is not to stifle free speech, or discourage any whistleblower from pointing out red flags. It should still be possible, in 2024, for gamers to reasonably examine this issue without making it about console wars or becoming ridiculously partisan, even toxic.
It would be unfortunate if a very good and new kind of game was built on stolen assets, essentially, other people’s labor. If it no longer becomes possible to even question if that was what happened, because a game becomes extremely popular, that will set a very bad precedent for the industry.
