The meteoric rise of Palworld is a song for the ages. Two weeks ago, it was sitting in 5th place for all-time concurrent Steam numbers. Today, the throne is forever etched with it sitting at #2. Or #1 if you add the 3 million concurrent Xbox/Game Pass players to the Steam total. Overall, there have been 19 million players shooting adorable animals in the face and/or enslaving them in little balls.
Screenshot taken 2/9/24
Unfortunately, Palworld may have finally gotten to close to the sun. Or has it?
It always seemed a question of “when” rather than “if” Nintendo would sue Palworld over copyright infringement for what the media (and everyone) describes as “Pokemon with Guns.” In the latest Nintendo investor call, someone brought up Palworld and this is what the Nintendo president, Shuntaro Furukawa, said:
We will take appropriate action against those that infringe on our intellectual property rights.
Let’s just take a moment and appreciate the craftmanship of that sentence. It says so much without saying anything at all, which in turn says so much.
Nintendo has never been shy about suing anyone and anything into oblivion for copyright infringement, so the fact that Palworld made it into Early Access at all is indicative that any hypothetical lawsuit was risky. That it continued to make headlines and break records unimpeded further indicates hesitation. And this legalese statement essentially confirms that if Nintendo ever does get around to business, the lawsuit will be from an oblique angle, at best.
Pocketpair isn’t concerned with the similarities, though. Speaking to Japanese gaming news outlet Automation, company CEO and lead developer Takuro Mizobe said that Palworld has passed all the necessary legal hurdles to clear it of copyright infringement. He also noted that there haven’t been any legal actions taken against Pocketpair for its overt comparisons to Pokémon—at least not yet, anyway.
“We make our games very seriously,” Mizobe said. “And we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies.”
Is it hubris? Actually, probably not.
We can say “Palworld is a rip-off of Pokemon,” but that is A) not all that accurate, and B) at best a moral statement. Game mechanics cannot be copyrighted. Attacking cute animals in tall grass and then capturing them with spheres is not protected expression. And three cheers for that! Can you imagine if Hit Points, Experience Points, talents, aiming down sights, side-scrolling, or any of the myriad of common mechanics were the exclusive domain of whomever first came up with them?
What about patents though? You may have heard about how Richard Garfield and Wizards of the Coast patented the “tapping” mechanic in Magic: the Gathering back in 1995, e.g. turning a card sideways to indicate its use. And over the intervening years, WotC has successfully sued at least two companies – ironically the Pokemon Company, but also the makers of Hex – into at least settling out of court. When it came to Hex though, they deserved it.
However, there is every indication that WotC’s gambit would not be successful anymore. This article touches on it, but basically a Supreme Court ruling in 2014 (Alice v CLS Bank) and subsequent 2018 Federal Court ruling all but closed the door on abstract game rules being patentable. Nevermind that the patent expired years ago anyway. Tap to your heart’s content! (This is not legal advice)
So, yeah. The Palworld mod that literally put Pokemon into the game? DMCA’d. Regular ole’ Palworld? Completely fine. And, honestly, kind of a perfect example of why none of this sort of thing should be locked down as the exclusive right of one corporation. Are the individual mechanics completely unique? Nope. But rather than the copy & paste shovelware you see in app stores, Pocket Pair is at least trying to take all the fun stuff from the games they like and mash it together and see if the result is just as fun. As armchair devs, we all like to say “I wish I could play X with the mechanic from Y.” Well, here is someone doing exactly that and it’s working. I saw that energy in Craftopia and I see that here in Palworld. We could do with more of that, not less, IMO.
I dislike talking about the same thing as everyone else, but… it’s impossible to ignore.
The best thing I can say about Pokémon Go is that it is a case study in accidental viral marketing. Or would it be grassroots social media marketing? I only know my beach vacation went from zero to “pull into that parking lot, honey” within hours on Thursday.
Both Google search trends and Nintendo’s stock prices bear that suddenness out:
And that’s just the generic “Pokemon” term.
By the way, $1000 on Nintendo last Wednesday is $1571 as of Monday night.
The aforementioned request for a detour was from someone who had no interest whatsoever in videogames, and by all indications still has no interest today. But I am absolutely certain that when she is out and about in town this week, she will be taking the “scenic” route through the red zones in order to get some more PokéBalls.
Choose wisely.
The other thing I’ll say about Pokémon Go is that its fascinating witnessing a perfect storm in motion. This isn’t the first Augmented Reality game to come out – Niantic were the ones to release Ingress, whose bones make up the entirety of Pokémon Go. No, this is what it must have felt like back in 2004, when WoW came onto the scene and blew up. Popularity basically beyond all reason.
And that is essentially where I am: watching this “game” be popular beyond all reason. It is impossible to “play” in every context in which I would play any game, it drains battery like nothing else, it gets full access to your Google account, and it’d waste my time even if I had never downloaded it in the first place (i.e. by the detour requests). I get that it’s nice fun for the whole family, blah blah, people actually moving around outside, etc.
Know what I see? A whole lot of more oblivious people walking around staring at their phones.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to clear my plate.
In An Age 
Nintenwon’t Sue
Feb 13
Posted by Azuriel
The meteoric rise of Palworld is a song for the ages. Two weeks ago, it was sitting in 5th place for all-time concurrent Steam numbers. Today, the throne is forever etched with it sitting at #2. Or #1 if you add the 3 million concurrent Xbox/Game Pass players to the Steam total. Overall, there have been 19 million players shooting adorable animals in the face and/or enslaving them in little balls.
Unfortunately, Palworld may have finally gotten to close to the sun. Or has it?
It always seemed a question of “when” rather than “if” Nintendo would sue Palworld over copyright infringement for what the media (and everyone) describes as “Pokemon with Guns.” In the latest Nintendo investor call, someone brought up Palworld and this is what the Nintendo president, Shuntaro Furukawa, said:
Let’s just take a moment and appreciate the craftmanship of that sentence. It says so much without saying anything at all, which in turn says so much.
Nintendo has never been shy about suing anyone and anything into oblivion for copyright infringement, so the fact that Palworld made it into Early Access at all is indicative that any hypothetical lawsuit was risky. That it continued to make headlines and break records unimpeded further indicates hesitation. And this legalese statement essentially confirms that if Nintendo ever does get around to business, the lawsuit will be from an oblique angle, at best.
The Palworld devs aren’t worried. As they noted back in January:
Is it hubris? Actually, probably not.
We can say “Palworld is a rip-off of Pokemon,” but that is A) not all that accurate, and B) at best a moral statement. Game mechanics cannot be copyrighted. Attacking cute animals in tall grass and then capturing them with spheres is not protected expression. And three cheers for that! Can you imagine if Hit Points, Experience Points, talents, aiming down sights, side-scrolling, or any of the myriad of common mechanics were the exclusive domain of whomever first came up with them?
What about patents though? You may have heard about how Richard Garfield and Wizards of the Coast patented the “tapping” mechanic in Magic: the Gathering back in 1995, e.g. turning a card sideways to indicate its use. And over the intervening years, WotC has successfully sued at least two companies – ironically the Pokemon Company, but also the makers of Hex – into at least settling out of court. When it came to Hex though, they deserved it.
However, there is every indication that WotC’s gambit would not be successful anymore. This article touches on it, but basically a Supreme Court ruling in 2014 (Alice v CLS Bank) and subsequent 2018 Federal Court ruling all but closed the door on abstract game rules being patentable. Nevermind that the patent expired years ago anyway. Tap to your heart’s content! (This is not legal advice)
So, yeah. The Palworld mod that literally put Pokemon into the game? DMCA’d. Regular ole’ Palworld? Completely fine. And, honestly, kind of a perfect example of why none of this sort of thing should be locked down as the exclusive right of one corporation. Are the individual mechanics completely unique? Nope. But rather than the copy & paste shovelware you see in app stores, Pocket Pair is at least trying to take all the fun stuff from the games they like and mash it together and see if the result is just as fun. As armchair devs, we all like to say “I wish I could play X with the mechanic from Y.” Well, here is someone doing exactly that and it’s working. I saw that energy in Craftopia and I see that here in Palworld. We could do with more of that, not less, IMO.
Posted in Commentary
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Tags: Copyright, Hex, Lawsuit, Nintendo, Palworld, Pokemon, Whistle Past the Graveyard