Support NeoGAF

[Fabieter]

If they sue I look forward to Square Enix owning the Pokemon IP after they sue for Nintendo stealing DragonQuest designs.

Sqaure enix don't even own dragon quest themselves.

 

[thief183]

I can't even imagine how pissed off are at Nintendo right now, they have one of the most popular IP and they use them like... you know the last pokemon on game...

This is the game they should have done, I can only dream of a game in this style with the polish of a Nintendo game.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

I can't even imagine how pissed off are at Nintendo right now, they have one of the most popular IP and they use them like... you know the last pokemon on game...

This is the game they should have done, I can only dream of a game in this style with the polish of a Nintendo game.

GameFreak are just gate keeping the games from being good at this point. Because it's night and day difference between GameFreak polish and Nintendo polish. Almost like GameFreak have poop mixed into their polish or something.

 

[Fabieter]

I can't even imagine how pissed off are at Nintendo right now, they have one of the most popular IP and they use them like... you know the last pokemon on game...

This is the game they should have done, I can only dream of a game in this style with the polish of a Nintendo game.

You expect kid friendly nintendo to make a shooter out of pokemon?

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Youve "Finished" palworld in 3 days? the game snot even finished lol. ALso, what kind of strange speed run did you guys do? Im obsessed ever day and I haven't even remotely scoured the islands yet.

Or are you saying theres some boss that you can go fight and say..."right ive beaten the 5 bosses so ive finished the game" is it that kind of thing?

Game has 5 bosses, map is not procedural and quite small, plus with 7 idiots on a private server grindwall is not a problem. I’m very dissatisfied in a lategame. There is no automation or factories whatsoever at later stages, base limit is 15 pals and there’s only 2 wonky guns.

I have very mixed feelings but it’s early access and the whole package still has potential.

 

[Astray]

I think actually finding some stuff deep in the data is better than just accusing them for shit.

Things like metadata, assets animations etc are all things that need time to examine.

I think anyone who thinks Nintendo has zero case is being very arrogant, but if a few months pass without a lawsuit, then odds are that Nintendo decided that a lawsuit is not worth the risk.

 

[Fbh]

The Pokemon Company is just salty because they read Palworld was made with almost $7 million USD .....and they didn't realize you are allowed to spend that much on a game.
Gamefreak must be fuming as I'm sure their budget of a $20 7-Eleven giftcard they were sent for the next game is already running low.

 

[FingerBang]

Imagine being the type of person who emails a Multi-billion dollar company and asks them to investigate a significantly smaller company because your butt hurt their game uses a similar art style and is more fun to play than the shit the Multi-billion dollar company gives you.

This. So fucking this.

And the multi-billion dollar company has to say "yeah, we're investigating, now chill"

Bunch of crybabies

 

[MikeM]

Hey Nintendo- stfu and bring Pokémon to PC.

 

[FeralEcho]

‘Nintendo fans are the cucks of the industry’ *goes back to playing Sweet Baby Incs’ getting bummed by a minority simulators*

I can't stand baby inc either.They ruined most of my favourite franchises with their bullshit....Throw them in the trash with the rabid fanboys that stan for their multibillion dollar overlords while the rest of us are too busy enjoying great games regardless of platform.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Sqaure enix don't even own dragon quest themselves.

Square Enix shouldn't have even merged

 

[DenchDeckard]

Pokemon fans snitching to Nintendo....

...painful to see.

The games fun as fuck...why try and ruin it for those enjoying it.

 

[DeVeAn]

Been playing Pokemon since Red. Sword and Shield was the first major disappointment for me. Loved Legends and had hope. Scarlet and Violet was utterly disappointing.

Palworld is what I wanted. I even prefer most of the designs of the monsters in PW. Some are clearly adjusted but so what? Game Freak needs a huge kick in the ass hopefully PW does it.

 

[j0hnnix]

Isn't it fun to see those on Twitter/x report plagerism to a multi billion dollar company and those same people are probably the ones parading around their far left ideals of tax the rich, down with evil corps. Lol world is upside down.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Translation: Shut the fuck up about Palworld already. We will enforce our IP if there's something to enforce but you gotta fucking stop harassing us about this game just because you're big mad.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Palworld in my opinion has definitely crossed a line of how far you can go, especially since they've been "inspired" by multiple Pokemon designs, not just a single character. The problem is they were smart about the changes so it won't be an easy plagiarism case that could lead to the game's fast shutdown (and some recompensation).

The fact that Palworld can stand on its own and actually be a "fun" game while Nintendo hasn't offered a similar product in my opinion doesn't change anything. If they went too far with the copying they should be punished.

 

[Basil King]

Is palworld success due to having a lot of pals to collect?

Can it be successful if they did not ripoff pokemon art?

It’s successful because angry and irate pokemon fans can’t stop talking about the game.

Who needs a marketing team when people become obsessed talking about your game?

 

[Fbh]

Palworld in my opinion has definitely crossed a line of how far you can go, especially since they've been "inspired" by multiple Pokemon designs, not just a single character. The problem is they were smart about the changes so it won't be an easy plagiarism case that could lead to the game's fast shutdown (and some recompensation).

The fact that Palworld can stand on its own and actually be a "fun" game while Nintendo hasn't offered a similar product in my opinion doesn't change anything. If they went too far with the copying they should be punished.

Unless there's direct stealing of assets or code I don't see the issue.
It's an obvious ripoff but that doesn't make it illegal.
The only way I could see it being an issue is if they were misleading customers into thinking it's a Pokémon game. But the name is nothing alike, the gameplay is honestly quite different and it's not even on Nintendo systems.

Blatant ripoffs have always been a thing:

The difference is the ripoffs are usually of such lower quality that no one cares and they probably don't make a lot of money.
That some lesser known AA team is giving the multi billion Pokemon Company a run for their money honestly only speaks of how little effort they've been putting into the actual Pokemon games.

 

[Northeastmonk]

It makes me want to buy two copies of Palworld.

 

[Roman Empire]

Even if Palworld implodes this will send a message that there is untapped market to anyone who decides to do a Triple-A Pokémon-like game. It's a winning formula and more than one player can play this game.

 

[BennyBlanco]

 

[lughnasadh123]

Pocket Pair just shot themselves in the foot.
I don't know how much the rest of you know about Pokemon culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in Palworld where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in Pokemon, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.
What this means is the Pokemon public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Palworld for either system, nor will they purchase any of Pocket Pair's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Pocket Pair has alienated an entire market with this move.
Pocket Pair, publicly apologize and cancel Palworld for PC/Xbox or you can kiss your business goodbye.

 

[CuNi]

I have to admit, games that make soyboys salty shoot up on my "Interest" list.
Bought 2 copies, one for me and 1 for my gf just now. Had played it a bit on Gamepass but with everyone so sure they will get sued, figured I'd donate some money for them to hire a good lawyer (they won't get sued).

 

[Hudo]

Translation: Shut the fuck up about Palworld already. We will enforce our IP if there's something to enforce but you gotta fucking stop harassing us about this game just because you're big mad.

This is the real message here.

 

[Astray]

Square Enix shouldn't have even merged

One of the worst events in gaming history and caused a great drought of good JRPG material in the PS3/XB360 era and the start of FF decline.

Square still hasn't recovered from it ages later.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

One of the worst events in gaming history and caused a great drought of good JRPG material in the PS3/XB360 era and the start of FF decline.

Square still hasn't recovered from it ages later.

Not to mention having all the biggest JRPG Franchises under one roof. That there should be considered a monopoly

 

[RoboFu]

Gamers are a petty bunch huh

 

[Lokaum D+]

fuck off Nintendo

 

[Astray]

The Pokemon Company is just salty because they read Palworld was made with almost $7 million USD .....and they didn't realize you are allowed to spend that much on a game.
Gamefreak must be fuming as I'm sure their budget of a $20 7-Eleven giftcard they were sent for the next game is already running low.

This part is what makes me somewhat suspicious tbh, the cost is incredibly small yet there's like over 100 pals from the off. It's very evident that "shortcuts" were taken.

The million dollar question is whether those shortcuts involved ripping Nintendo assets in anyway shape or form. It's not the similarity that's creating a controversy imo, it's the possibility that they potentially put their hands on Nintendo assets, even if they altered it afterwards. This is a company that openly admits to not having version control, so there's a relatively high possibility that they (or at least a set of employees) could have done this.

Not to mention having all the biggest JRPG Franchises under one roof. That there should be considered a monopoly

Discovering Falcom games was a godsend for me. Final Fantasy pushed me off the "day 1 purchase" category of customers with 12.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Discovering Falcom games was a godsend for me. Final Fantasy pushed me off the "day 1 purchase" category of customers with 12.

Same here, their Legend of Heroes games are Day One purchases for me. I just wish there was more big Japanese Third Parties that are willing to release more JPRGs like SquareEnix does though.

As for the whole Palworld situation, Nintendo won't sue since it would give SquareEnix precedent to sue Nintendo for Pokémon copying their Dragon Quest monsters designs.

I'm just salty it's not Yokai Watch getting all the buzz. Palworld like Pokémon is just unappealing to me from what I seen of the gameplay. But hey it sells so there's that lol

I'm still waiting on my English localization announcement of Yokai Watch 4 which will never come unfortunately

 

[Assaulty]

Been playing Pokemon since Red. Sword and Shield was the first major disappointment for me. Loved Legends and had hope. Scarlet and Violet was utterly disappointing.

Palworld is what I wanted. I even prefer most of the designs of the monsters in PW. Some are clearly adjusted but so what? Game Freak needs a huge kick in the ass hopefully PW does it.

The sad thing is that the animations, palmon designs, general animations in Palworld are decently janky, but they are leagues ahead of what gamefreak dared to present in a final product. I loaded up the Scarlet/violet dlc after playing 30 hours of this, and Scarlet/violet feels like the knock of game if the two, its quite astonishing.

Sure, the switch is weak and part of the problem, but gamefreak as a studio is absolutely short selling the franchise and this game makes that painfully clear if it wasn't already

 

[Sakura]

This part is what makes me somewhat suspicious tbh, the cost is incredibly small yet there's like over 100 pals from the off. It's very evident that "shortcuts" were taken.

The million dollar question is whether those shortcuts involved ripping Nintendo assets in anyway shape or form. It's not the similarity that's creating a controversy imo, it's the possibility that they potentially put their hands on Nintendo assets, even if they altered it afterwards. This is a company that openly admits to not having version control, so there's a relatively high possibility that they (or at least a set of employees) could have done this.


Discovering Falcom games was a godsend for me. Final Fantasy pushed me off the "day 1 purchase" category of customers with 12.

The pal models are pretty low poly. It doesn't take that much work to make 100 of them. If anything it is probably one of the easier parts of the game to develop.

 

[Joshmyersbv]

Except the small company is creatively bankrupt and cashing in on other's work. This isn't 'inspiration'. It's just plagiarism.

I'm sorry but if this was plagiarism Nintendo would have done something about it by now. The first trailer of this game came out a year ago and Nintendo did nothing.

 

[apple_of_enlightenment]

It's an obvious ripoff but that doesn't make it illegal.

Yes, it does.

"That some lesser known AA team is giving the multi billion Pokemon Company a run for their money honestly only speaks of how little effort they've been putting into the actual Pokemon games."

Agree.

 

[Nankatsu]

One thing is nuke a game that didn't got any traction, another is going against one that already has millions of players and offers a different take that The Pókemon Company didn't managed to do.

Being inspired, copied, or whatever, The Pokemon Company would never do Pokemon with guns.

Either way, I love watching pokemon fans riot.

 

[Svejk]

Gotta burn them all!

 

[Astray]

The pal models are pretty low poly. It doesn't take that much work to make 100 of them. If anything it is probably one of the easier parts of the game to develop.

You need to iterate on the designs, create meshes textures animations ai routines.

They are the heart of the game and it's likely that a good chunk of dev time was spent on them. Looking average or lo-fi doesn't mean that it was done with zero effort.

My main contention is that there were shortcuts that clearly got taken, the hot legal question of whether those shortcuts infringed on Nintendo property in any legally provable way.

As for the whole Palworld situation, Nintendo won't sue since it would give SquareEnix precedent to sue Nintendo for Pokémon copying their Dragon Quest monsters designs.

If you're talking about that comparison meme that's going around, most of those designs are nowhere near similar (some are even based on different animals/insects all together).

A brief look comparing each dq monster to the supposed pokemon would show this imo.

Similarity is not the problem, Temtem is also "inspired by Pokemon" and it actually got a Switch release. The problem is the potential illegal asset usage involved.

 

[Sakura]

You need to iterate on the designs, create meshes textures animations ai routines.

They are the heart of the game and it's likely that a good chunk of dev time was spent on them. Looking average or lo-fi doesn't mean that it was done with zero effort.

My main contention is that there were shortcuts that clearly got taken, the hot legal question of whether those shortcuts infringed on Nintendo property in any legally provable way.

Many animations will not be that unique, and each Pal itself does not need it's own unique AI either, that's not how games work.
The only real (illegal) shortcut that could really be taken here is ripping the models from Pokemon, but that honestly isn't much of a short cut here, because as said, the models aren't particularly complex in the first place. The textures aren't ripped, and they would still have to mess with the models to make them look different, so you really wouldn't be saving that much time compared to just making the models from scratch, using pokemon as a reference.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Given how stale the recent GameFreak titles have been, I probably would have supported Palworld if they'd simply tried to make a better variation on the genre.

But the ripoffs are next level here... every single frame of their trailer shows a 1:1 clone of a Pokemon. Somehow they've decided to make themselves even harder to support than GameFreak. Both companies deserve failure and mass layoffs.

 

[Little Chicken]

I can't even imagine how pissed off are at Nintendo right now, they have one of the most popular IP and they use them like... you know the last pokemon on game...

This is the game they should have done, I can only dream of a game in this style with the polish of a Nintendo game.

Did you see the last Pokemon game? Last thing that springs to mind is "polish".

 

[FoxMcChief]

Zero fucks given.

 

[Astray]

The only real (illegal) shortcut that could really be taken here is ripping the models from Pokemon, but that honestly isn't much of a short cut here, because as said, the models aren't particularly complex in the first place.

The complexity of the models doesn't matter if they were ripped. Them being simple makes it even more egregious in court because that means it would have been simple to make their own from the start.

 

[Doom_master1122]

Gamers are a petty bunch huh

This. 10000x over.

The whole situation is annoying.
This kind of fan reaction is why I've slowly distanced myself from nearly every gaming community out there. Everyone suddenly becomes a backseat developer and becomes overly negative just for the sake of it. Critiquing companies and games are one thing, but being overly toxic for the sake of it, or placing allegations like they have with "Just trust me bro" as evidence, is a completely different kind of crazy.
And now since its the hot topic going around everyone and their grandmother is coming out of the woodwork giving their hot take with nothing more than "trust me bro" mentality *points to the topics regarding the "former" Pokemon Company's lawyer, and Naughty Dog dev*

I'm a casual enjoyer of Pokemon games as a whole. I enjoy journeying out with new 'mons in a new region and enjoying the journey and sidequests, post game content, etc along the way. I don't dive into Meta play. Battle towers and raising the perfect team is too much for me to care.
I've slowed down on playing the games as they seems to have less content I enjoy. Sword and shield had virtually no post game beyond fighting raids and a battle tower. (PreDLC). I haven't even touched Scarlet and Violet yet.
With how the fan base has been so toxic over this scenario, it just has pushed me entirely away from the games going forward. Holy shit I've not seen such sweaty children over this.
Palworld has a lot of things to critique. It is far from a perfect game. Its actually incredibly jank, but Its been fun regardless. But instead of playing internet court and gutting everyone. Just let Nintendo handle this if it's ACTUALLY a problem. I'm sure they were aware of the game far before anyone spammed them regarding it.

 

[SF Kosmo]

The complexity of the models doesn't matter if they were ripped. Them being simple makes it even more egregious in court because that means it would have been simple to make their own from the start.

I don't think anyone is accusing them of being ripped. They clearly them as reference material, but that's not the same as using actual assets.

 

[Sakura]

The complexity of the models doesn't matter if they were ripped. Them being simple makes it even more egregious in court because that means it would have been simple to make their own from the start.

That's not my point. You are saying there are over 100 pals, so therefore it is very evident shortcuts were taken. You then follow by positing on whether those shortcuts involved ripping Nintendo's models.
I am saying that ripping the models isn't a shortcut (at least not in any meaningful way), as simply modeling the Pals isn't a big workload, especially considering the changes you would have to make to the models compared to the Pokemon ones would largely negate any time saved vs just using a reference.

I disagree with the premise that it is 'very evident that "shortcuts" were taken'. It is an early access, buggy, unpolished and unfinished game, that has been in development for around 3 years.

 

[Astray]

I don't think anyone is accusing them of being ripped. They clearly them as reference material, but that's not the same as using actual assets.

I don't think we can say it's "clearly" one thing or another. We simply don't know.

Someone did a model comparison on Twitter, but I don't have the interest or the know-how to prove or disprove them. Nintendo has both, so it's likely we will see in the coming days what they think.

I don't think they release this statement if they don't want to sue tho.

 

[Fbh]

Yes, it does.

As far as I know ripoffs aren't illegal as long as nothing is copied 1:1 and there were no assets stolen
Production companies like The Asylum have been doing obvious ripoffs for years

If anything I'd argue some of these have a bigger chance of being mistaken for "the real product" than Palworld.

 

[Fabieter]

I think its interesting that alot of people give so much benefit of a doubt when most of us would be judge a big publisher on an instant no matter if we don't know if its true. Always go for the underdog no matter what I guess.

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

This will be fascinating. If The Pokemon Company sues/wins there will be HUUUGEE financial repercussions for the Palworld studio since they sold so many units and had so many people engaged with the IP and buzz around it. If they lose/not sue, it gives opportunities for pretty much everyone else to ape and copy Pokemon designs from that point forward.

No it wont because nothing will happen. Otherwise Square can later on sue the shit out of Nintendo for copying their Dragon Quest designs.
It would be stupid and hypocrite of Nintendo to do this and they damn well know it.

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

Pocket Pair just shot themselves in the foot.
I don't know how much the rest of you know about Pokemon culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in Palworld where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in Pokemon, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.
What this means is the Pokemon public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Palworld for either system, nor will they purchase any of Pocket Pair's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Pocket Pair has alienated an entire market with this move.
Pocket Pair, publicly apologize and cancel Palworld for PC/Xbox or you can kiss your business goodbye.

This post is so full of shit that I can acutally smell it.

Pokemon fans are that. Pokemon fans. They wouldn't bother with anything else. So PocketPair lost nothing, didn't shoot themselves in the foot or bla, bla.

Just your brainfart/ wishfull thinking.

Now sod off. You are biased and salty. "I'm an Expert" Yeah... dead giveaway that you are a Pokemon fan that wants to see the world burn because of 1 fucking game.