Modders and Devs show evidence that Palworld copies Pokémon

[John Elden Ring]

The accusations against Palworld took another turn on Sunday, when an anonymous X account appeared claiming to show evidence of not just design inspiration, but plagiarism of actual game assets. User ‘Byo’ posted several videos comparing Palworld’s in-game 3D models to those of Pokémon, and claimed to show evidence that they were likely copied.





While none of the half-dozen models compared by the X user appear to be 1:1 copies, they claimed that their proportions were nearly identical to Pokémon models exported from Switch’s Scarlet and Violet games.

According to two experienced AAA game artists who spoke to VGC, the model comparisons on X are likely evidence that Palworld’s character models were indeed based on Pokémon assets.

“You cannot, in any way, accidentally get the same proportions on multiple models from another game without ripping the models. Or at the very least, tracing them meticulously first,” one senior character artist told VGC anonymously, adding: “I would stand in court to testify as an expert on this.” They explained: “To give you an idea of how impossible this is, sometimes we have to copy one mesh to another when we make sequels to games, for example, redrawing an NPC from one game to another, and even when we rework those old models, they only SOMETIMES match this closely due to rigging changes that might need to happen. “There have been times when dozens of artists are given the same concept art to create a 3D model, for example, during art tests for jobs. I’ve seen 30 artists try to make the same horse using the exact schematics. “None were as close to each other as these Palworld models are to the Pokémon models. None. The silhouettes and proportions here are near-perfect matches.”

Text via VGC

 

[Batzy]

10 out of 100 is a coincident. Half tho... a bit sus

 

[Johnic]

 

[gokuss4]

Man Nintendo want to kill this game so badly

 

[Lord Mittens]

 

[Luffy123]

imo it should be called out cause this is the next step for companies like Microsoft in making games in the future

Has to be stamped out now

 

[Systemshock2023]

Nintendo::

 

[Nhomnhom]

Where was that energy when everyone was praising Lies of P?

Game Freak and Nintendo are so lazy that they deserve all the humiliation coming their way.

imo it should be called out cause this is the next step for companies like Microsoft in making games in the future

Has to be stamped out now

MS does seem to get in bed with all these blatant clones, very in their character.

 

[Lord Mittens]

Where was that energy when everyone was praising Lies of P?

Game Freak and Nintendo are so lazy that they deserve all the humiliation coming their way.


MS does seem to get in bed with all these blatant clones, very in their character.

What's wrong with Lies of P?

 

[Dr Bass]

What's wrong with Lies of P?

It's a blatant Bloodborne rip.

 

[Lord Mittens]

It's a blatant Bloodborne rip.

Both great games

 

[laynelane]

I thought it was obvious just based on vision alone. That's the first thing I thought when I saw images for the game - that they're knock-off Pokemon. Question is whether it's an issue for the company who makes Pokemon.

 

[Dr Bass]

Both great games

Yeah but you shouldn't be able to look at a game and directly "see" another IP in it. Not IMO anyway.

 

[Nimrota]

Genuine question: is it copyright infringement to use someone else's model as a reference for your own? Is Pokemon infringed because your design is a similar number of centimetres in length? Personally I don't see an issue here because it's about the visual design of characters not dimensions. Not sure if anyone would care if you used a character model as reference to build your own, I don't think people would go after a developer for that.

 

[historia]

I notice the devs is based in Japan. This will not go down well for them...

Nintendo execs so insanely bloodthirsty for these guys of shit, especially in their homeland.

 

[Dr Bass]

Genuine question: is it copyright infringement to use someone else's model as a reference for your own? Is Pokemon infringed because your design is a similar number of centimetres in length? Personally I don't see an issue here because it's about the visual design of characters not dimensions. Not sure if anyone would care if you used a character model as reference to build your own, I don't think people would go after a developer for that.

Think it might get into the realm of if they are basically infringing a trademark and if there is room for confusion. I know this is Wikipedia but still ...

Trademark infringement - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Someone else on X commented that there are text descriptions of Pokemon in the source too, where the word "Pokemon" is still in there and wasn't removed. If true (I didn't care enough to dig into this, still don't), given everything else, that's a pretty bad look overall. Again don't know if anything can really be done, but as generative AI becomes increasingly powerful, do we want game companies able to basically steal from other game companies with only the most minor of tweaks and put out a title? Like what if we got a game called "War Buddies" where the main character was obviously Kratos, but with blue highlights instead of red? Is that ok?

 

[Bryank75]

It's interesting how Palworld has become a poster child for ai in gaming and a target as a result.

Ricky road ahead finding out where ai should and shouldn't be used.

 

[Nimrota]

Think it might get into the realm of if they are basically infringing a trademark and if there is room for confusion. I know this is Wikipedia but still ...

Trademark infringement - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Someone else on X commented that there are text descriptions of Pokemon in the source too, where the word "Pokemon" is still in there and wasn't removed. If true (I didn't care enough to dig into this, still don't), given everything else, that's a pretty bad look overall. Again don't know if anything can really be done, but as generative AI becomes increasingly powerful, do we want game companies able to basically steal from other game companies with only the most minor of tweaks and put out a title? Like what if we got a game called "War Buddies" where the main character was obviously Kratos, but with blue highlights instead of red? Is that ok?

Yeah the question is the legality. The dialogue I keep seeing is very mixed over what the issue. Some are claiming because the game isn't original, it's copyright infringement. Some are arguing AI "stole" from Pokemon designs, so it is copyright infringement. Others are arguing, like this example, that direct assets have been used, so it's copyright infringement. I guess they could all be simultaneously true, but I think they're somewhat mutually exclusive. I personally do not see a lot of the visual similarity and as I said here some of the claims come across as hysterical and people saying that having a cute sheep monster is infringing on Pokemon (because apparently Pokemon owns the copyright to sheep) undermines their credibility by making it look hysterical. Certainly more inclined to believe copying models is wrong, but looks as if people are looking for a reason to dislike the game.

 

[historia]

It's interesting how Palworld has become a poster child for ai in gaming and a target as a result.

Ricky road ahead finding out where ai should and shouldn't be used.

I think AI would be great for open world games with lots of contents.

Voice acting, random scripts and dynamic events,... The possibility is endless for that.

Linear original content should not be using AI though.

 

[Systemshock2023]

Lies of P has differences over Bloodborne, from gameplay systems to proper coding that lets it hit 60 fps or more with ease.