They plagiarized a bunch of Pokemon and used the publicity generated to bring attention to their game.
Actually they’re suing because of these alleged infringement of these weirdly general patents:
Don’t forget that these patents (or modifications of existing patents) were made after Palworld released.
Nintendo and their lawyers are scumbags
Nintendo alleges that they plagiarized their assets.
The thing is, there was a solid argument to be made that some of the meshes for certain Pals were too similar to that of some Pokémon models to be a coincidence, but Nintendo didn’t bring any of that up in the lawsuit. They opted to go for the much more flimsy “riding a character” and “summoning a character by throwing a ball/sphere”.
And, somehow, fucking won. They forced Palworld to remove the ball throwing mechanic.
It’s fucking stupid.
And, somehow, fucking won.
No, they haven’t won a single patent case yet. And there’s still ball throwing in the game, but only for captures. The summoning via ball throwing was removed so that Nintendo couldn’t file an injuction against Pocketpair to stop their sales during the case.
If Pocketpair wins the court cases, they can undo the removals.
Oh gotcha. I thought I read the won the patent in Japan or something so that’s why it was removed.
Good to hear they are still fighting it.
Honestly pokemon has kinda sucked for a long time now and they deserve the ass kicking they got from pal world. We don’t need game freak anymore…they can’t be bothered to make a good game.
If anyone plagiarized pokemon it would have been tem tem, but that was not a threat to Nintendo so they went after pal world because game freak got lazy with their game dev.
I thought GameFreak owned Pokemon.
They own a third of it, along with Nintendo and Creatures
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If memory serves, the plagiarism allegations were doctored. Nintendo tried to find whatever they could sue them for, and it wasn’t plagiarizing monster designs; it was for things like “riding a captured creature” and “catching creatures by throwing a ball at them”. Some aspect of Japanese law allowed for them to make new patents after Palworld came out and then sue them for it retroactively.
Aielman15@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m not talking about what went into court. Most pals are “legally distinct” monsters, but that’s what brought the game to public awareness, what started the comparisons with Pokémon, and why Nintendo hated their guts. Monster collectors have existed outside of Pokémon for decades and still do, Nintendo only sued Palworld because they copy-pasted their monsters with a different color palette.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What brought the game to court compared to the other monster collectors is that this one made a shit-ton of money, and the other ones didn’t, so Nintendo and The Pokemon Company were, for the first time, threatened.
Aielman15@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They wouldn’t feel threatened by Palworld if it wasn’t for the legally distinct™ designs because, at its core, Palworld is a completely different game that only vaguely resembles Pokémon on a very superficial level (the monster themselves).
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
If it’s legally not considered copy-pasting their monsters, why do you feel like you can assert that it is plagiarism? I suppose that’s your opinion, and you’re entitled to it, but I also think people have a right to call you out on it for saying it as if it’s a fact when it is not actually a recognized fact. Plenty of people would dispute that, including myself, and certainly Pocketpair would, and evidence suggests the courts probably would’ve agreed with them hence it wasn’t even worth pursuing legally.
Aielman15@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You can dispute that Palworld didn’t copy-paste Pokémon body parts and palette swap their designs to create their legally distinct clones, but I’d call that bullshit. People only side with PocketPair because they plagiarized Nintendo, which people (rightfully) hates. If it was done to anyone else, nobody would defend them. I can hate Nintendo and still posit that what PocketPair did was shitty and an insult to all the devs who actually take pride in their work and put effort in creating something original.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Fuck off which this. Pokemon pulled the same shit when they copied Monster Quest with the first games
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh, wow. Dragon Quest’s are way cuter.
Arcadeep@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, as someone who has been playing Pokemon since Pokemon Blue, I don’t see much of a similarity in the monsters from Palworld, other than them having the same inspirations such as a sheep, a cat, an owl and so on. They are “legally distinct” in the same way that the shotgun in Halo is legally distinct from the shotgun in Doom
Aielman15@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Coincidentally, those that look similar the most are not the simple animal-shaped ones.
Electabuzz, Lucario, Cinderace, Lycanroc, Cobalion, Luxray, Aggron.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
If you dont like that you should see the titan bars I got from Aldi.
Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah I love Pokemon and everything, but this kind of Nintendo apologism is gross. They don’t have a copyright on dog monster or derpy dragon. These are all based on animals and yokai, so obviously there will be similarities. But the idea that there was plagiarism/re-used assets was complete fabrication from the start. If you want to see an ACTUAL ripoff, watch the trailer for Palworld then watch the Pickmon trailer. I’m certain this game indeed plagiarized Mammorest at least, and the game design is identical.