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Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, Inc.
(www.nintendo.co.jp)
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this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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Anybody who's played palworld knows the game is nothing like pokemon. What's next, are they going to claim they are the only company who can make games with 4 legged animals?
I played it and I felt like it borrowed a lot of elements from Pokemon. It wasn't Pokemon, but you can't deny it took like 90% of their inspiration from Pokemon and then added guns to it.
That's like any FPS game ripping off any other FPS game.
Fight, capture, tame, train, breed animals.
Base building, research tree, enemy raids.
Exploration, resource gathering, survival.
I don't think Nintendo has a monopoly on enslaving animals.
I know what you mean, tho. It's always described as "Pokémon with guns and 3xE gameplay".
But does Nintendo actually have a case that will hold up in courts?
Pocketpair seems confident they can defend against it. So either they have done their research and are up for a fight. Or they (think they) are calling Nintendo's bluff.
But Nintendo has a whole pack of lawyers.
Unfortunately there are no details on what the patents being infringemed upon are, just that they relate to "Pocket Monster".
I don't believe Nintendo will hold up in court.
But it's the combination of it all, aside from guns and concentration camp levels of slavery, that make it look like they straight up copied ideas from Pokemon.
It's true Nintendo doesn't hold the specific style or gameplay mechanics, and that's where I think they'll fail to win a case, but just saying it's just so blatantly obvious where the inspiration comes from.
They said patent violations, not copyright, so it is about some sort of mechanic or system and not the pals or any specific designs. I'm guessing the thrown ball capture system, since it seems no other developers have published anything using that specifically.
They shouldnt be able to sue for that cause a patent only lasts for 20 years in Japan. I saw some guesses that there might be a patent for one of their legends games that they are suing for.
World of Final Fantasy is as close to a Pokemon rip off as you can get, and they didn't get sued.
Edit. And now I think about it, the mobile game of Rick and Morty was very much a reskin of Pokemon.
I don't understand. Everyone, literally EVERYONE was calling this game pokemon with guns when it released, so why are people mad that the makers of pokemon are suing? We all saw it from the start
Lots of games are also called Roguelike. Based off a game called Rogue. The makers of Rogue do not get to sue the makers of Hades.
Pets that fight for you, including being able to store them for portable carry has been done by many other games, including Ark. In fact, playing Palworld made me compare it more to Ark than Pokemon: base building, automation, catching dinos/animals/monsters of different varieties for different uses. Some can fly, some run, some can be used as parachutes. Some help automate actions at base. There is a tech tree unlocked by leveling, starting with primitive weapons and moving on to guns and higher caliber guns. Blueprints are common in ark for higher quality crafts to build at, you guessed it, crafting benches.
Collecting wood, stone, metals, etc. Also the animal assistants can help there too, but only certain ones. Also, Ark has cryopods for storing your animals/dinosaurs. You even throw em to release.
If they had exactly Pikachu or something it's one thing, but similar games are just part of the business.
The comparison is valid, but doesn't mean it infringes on any patent.
Otherwise, FromSoftware would sue the shit out of every soulslike out there.
Just because it has a resemblance to pokemon doesn't make it pokemon. The gameplay is completely different.
So you don't catch "pals" by weakening them and throwing a ball at them?
Palworld is an open world survival crafting factory/base building game, that happens to borrow the catching mechanic from Pokemon (who borrowed it from Shin Megami Tensei).
Where is the line drawn between borrowing and copying?
If you can't draw inspiration from other games, then the gaming industry as a whole is in trouble.
It's one thing to draw inspiration, and another to directly copy the art style and mechanics of an established franchise to piggyback on their brand recognition.
You obviously haven't actually played the game.
K first of all, the mechanic you're referencing was already an established mechanic before Pokemon Red/Blue came out. The Pokemon Company didn't invent the "creature catcher" genre of video games.
Second of all, as I've said already, the catching mechanic in Palworld is absolutely distinct enough to be considered as drawing inspiration from Pokemon, and not copying. If you wanna get into the nitty gritty, I'll meet you down there, but if you're just gonna continue to spout meaningless contrarianisms I've got better things to do
Third of all, "cell shaded anime art style" describes hundreds if not thousands of video games, not just Pokemon games. You can't realistically claim that Palworld copied Pokemon's art style* just because it uses a cell-shaded anime style, especially because Pokemon has only used that art direction for the last two generations of games, and the style has been in use long before sword and shield came out.
Copying would imply a one to one duplication. The catching system in Palworld differs in multiple ways from the Pokemon system. I think that's enough to call it borrowing and not copying.
I think it's understandable why they sue them (I doubt it holds up in court though), it's just horrible business practice because Nintendo is too lazy to actually innovate and do something creative for a change, instead of sitting on franchises like that and do fuck all with it, only releasing repetitive piss-poor games based on the exact same concept they invented like 30+ years ago.
The problem is people will still buy Pokemon, even if they're absolute garbage games. So Nintendo won't change it either.
I think it's an issue with Japanese game companies in general. I've been complaining about Capcom forever. Megaman 11 was a side scroller. I'm a massive mega man fan and I like the side scroll. But it's 2024. Can we try something new? I would love a ratchet and Clank style, open world 3d mega man where you go to the different areas of the city and take down the bosses. Also games like monster hunter, are so janky and look 10 years out of date, and most Capcom games look outdated
I'm sorry, it's mostly humanoid furries now with the starter Pokémon...