2024-01-26 14:30:50
Palworld video games: a phenomenon or shameless plagiarism?
Since its release on January 19, 2024, the video game Palworld, developed by the Japanese studio PocketPair, has generated unprecedented enthusiasm. In just six days of marketing, the title reached the milestone of 8 million sales, becoming a major trend on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. Its concept? A survival universe in which players interact with armed creatures, called Pals. Nothing very innovative in itself, except that the developers of the game seem to have been largely inspired by the Pokémon universe, and this has far from gone unnoticed by its fans who quickly accused PocketPair of plagiarism .
PocketPair seems pretty adept at doing so. In addition to the design of its characters, users pointed out the music of the Palworld game, which also strangely resembles the Nintendo game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Palworld seems to have wanted to play on Pokémon’s reputation to attract millions of players. It must be said that the Pokémon Company is one of the franchises the most profitable in the world. With 27 years of existence, Pokémon has become a global phenomenon that combines 368 million video games sold and more than 30 billion collectible cards sold.
Pokemon intellectual property at stake
Faced with the rise of Palworld, the Pokemon Company was quick to react. The latter announced, in its press release of January 25, 2024, launching an investigation to determine whether intellectual property rights related to Pokémon have been violated. It was time for the Pokémon Company to take action. Just for the year 2020, the Pokémon Company posted revenue of $5.1 billion. These impressive figures, which mark the history of video games, put into perspective the stakes of this affair for Nintendo and its Pokémon Company.
This investigation could represent a major turning point in the video game industry. With the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, such as Midjourney or Dall-E, new legal and ethical questions arise. Palworld, like Pokémon, risks very big in this matter. The Pokemon Company’s investigation could open the debate on the use of generative artificial intelligence in the design and production of video games, but also in any other form of leisure.
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