Palworld CEO, Former Pokemon Head Attorney Comment On Plagiarism Red Flags
gameranx.comPocketpair’s CEO has commented on the plagiarism controversy surrounding their recent release, Palworld. But, he isn’t the only one who has chimed in.
As reported and translated by Video Games Chronicle, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe shared a statement on Twitter:
“We are currently receiving abusive and defamatory comments against our artists, in addition to tweets that appear to be death threats.
While we have received various opinions about Palworld, it is important to note that the supervision of all materials related to Palworld is conducted by a team, including myself. I bear the responsibility for the produced materials. I would appreciate it if these comments towards artists involved in Palworld would cease.”
It must be noted that some of the Twitter users accusing Pocketpair stated that they also received death threats as a result of the controversy. We would like to state here that we do not condone any death threats or harassment of any party involved in this story.
In an interview with Japanese site Automation, Mizobe stated that Palworld cleared legal review, and that the company does not intend any copyright infringement. While it’s strange he did not make this claim to the English speaking audience on Twitter, it’s significant, because Japanese copyright law is far harsher in letter and implementation than in the US.
Other parties have also been sharing their opinions on the matter. While the threads from Twitter users making arguments for plagiarism or AI generation are numerous, we will point to something else. Don Macgowan was Chief Legal Officer of The Pokemon Company for twelve years. When asked to comment by Stephen Totilo’s Gamefile, he had this to say:
“This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokémon. I’m just surprised it got this far.”
Video Games Chronicle sought other legal opinions, who talked about the legal standard that The Pokemon Company would have to reach to
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