PocketPair seems to be facing constant turmoil. The Tokyo-based studio has recently come under fire after the lawyers for Nintendo and The Pokémon Company decided to file a lawsuit. The big corporations accuse the studio of violating certain patents with their game Palworld. The monster-taming game that has captured gamers’ attention for weeks is now in the hands of Japanese lawyers.
It will be up to the judges to determine the validity of the accusations, which, at least according to the latest updates, wouldn’t concern alleged plagiarism of the monsters in a strict sense, but rather a patent violation. Right now, without the support of a legal expert, it’s difficult to provide a comprehensive explanation of the situation. Currently, there is an official response from the studio defending itself and promising to conduct appropriate investigations.
Interestingly, there’s a closely related development. With the news that TPC and Nintendo have finally filed a lawsuit against PocketPair—something that was initially only a possibility that had been under consideration for months—accusations are also coming from alleged former developers. This is currently unfolding on Twitter, where a user known by the handle @eb_kemo has launched into a lengthy tirade against their supposed former employers.
In this case, caution is necessary: the inevitable inaccuracies of many translations and the impossibility of definitively ascertaining the user’s role compel us to exercise some restraint. Nonetheless, eb_kemo is now accusing PocketPair of forcing them to closely replicate the designs of Ken Sugimori’s monsters. “They wanted something that could make it into the Top 100 favorite Pokémon of all time,” Kemo reportedly said regarding the design of the Pal creatures in Palworld. In this extensive outpouring, the user expresses regret about the treatment they received and, above all, about the feeling of having their creative spirit violated.
