That Palworld whether it’s the video game of the moment is certainly no secret. The Survival made by Pocket Pair, Inc. and on the lips and PCs of millions of players. In the space of a few days, Palworld has in fact managed to surpass every record of sales and active players on Steam reaching sell 7 million copies in just 5 days. But success isn’t the only reason why the game is so popular. Palworld has in fact been accused of plagiarism well before the game came out, accused of having copied the design of the much more famous ones here and there Pokémon.
The accusations were cemented with the release of the game which showed the design of the over 100 Pals, the name of the Palworld creatures, present at the launch. But in all this hullabaloo, silence on the part of Nintendo e The Pokémon Company, famous for protecting the intellectual property of Pokémon with gritted teeth, is even more controversial.
Maybe because after all Palworld can’t really be accused of plagiarism? Or is it just a matter of time?
The Palworld Vs Pokémon Case: the accusations of plagiarism
Whether or not you have entered the colorful world of Palworld, available from January 19th on PC and Xbox, if you are a gamer you will surely have come into contact with these bizarre little monsters. Defined as “Pokémon but with machine guns”, Palworld presents itself as an Open World/Survival Game inhabited by Pals, monsters with peculiar characteristics with elemental attacks that can be captured with a special sphere.
Ok, from these few lines the parallels with Pokémon are already many and obviously, going forward the situation does not improve. Added to this are also the research of gamers and Pokémon enthusiasts who, in a way that is not at all peaceful, have highlighted the many, too many similarities with Satoshi Tajiri’s beloved franchise.
According to other users however, the Palword developers would not only have copied the style, design and colors of Pokémon but would even have used the 3D models used in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and use them as a basis to develop your own Pals, extrapolating the source code of the game. This act would go far beyond plagiarism and would affect the sphere of intellectual property. However, at the moment it is only about generic theories and accusations that have no legal basis and none can be used as an accusation of plagiarism on Nintendo’s part.
The non-word to Nintendo
Takuro Mizobe is the CEO of Pocketpairhas repeatedly stated that Palworld has passed legal reviews already in the development phase and no legal action has been taken against the software house. Mizobe himself said: “We make our games with the utmost seriousness and have absolutely no intention of infringing the intellectual property of other companies.”
Indeed if there had been any problems in terms of copyrightNintendo and its particularly tough legal team would have seized the opportunity to take the matter to court well before Palworld’s release.
Nintendo’s inflexibility towards those who touch its IP is in fact legendary, whether it be suing those who violate copyright, blocking any changes to its games and even blocking a mod that brought Pokémon right into the world of Palworld released a few days ago does.
In conclusion: plagiarism or not plagiarism?
History makes us understand that if this was really plagiarism, Palworld would never have seen the light. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company act exclusively when there is a real infringement with their Copyright and the fact that Palworld is happily grazing in the videogame market gives us the answer to this question.
If the situation were to change and Nintendo were to encounter much bigger problems than a banal copying, be sure that we will all hear about it loudly.
What do you think? Are we really faced with a case of plagiarism?
