Nintendo Sues Palworld

[Skunkworks]

The press release indicates they are seeking an injunction based on infringement. Honestly, I'm surprised it took this long.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2024/240919.html

[Althena]

Well that took way longer than I thought it would.

[Destian]

Came here to post this, heh...

Likewise shocked it took them this long.

[Mr Croft]

I thought nintendo didn't have any ground to stand on since TECHNICALLY you can say Pokémon is a rip off the capture system in dragon quest.

[Random Encounter]

https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/pocketpair-hires-identical-lawyers-with-guns/

[Selbaek]

I hope PP comes out on top. While it's very clear how much influence PalWorld took from Pokémon, it kind of feels like the Bethesda-Mojang case where Bethesda was afraid that Mojang's upcoming new game "Scrolls" was going to take away from, confuse people, or infringe upon their "Elder Scrolls" IP.

[Random Encounter]

Nintendo's litigious bullshit is terrible for this industry. They make good games and a console actually worth picking up, but I can't support shit like this. I hope they don't end up bleeding Pocketpair dry in court costs.

[The Grimace]

I am extremely against Nintendo in this.

I want to elaborate. I love many of Nintendo's games, but I'm sick of their business practices as a whole. I have not played Palworld and I do believe it (of course) has a heavy inspiration from Pokemon, and some Pals are very similar in a nearly "Original Character do not steal" kind of way, but that's largely a part of the game's appeal and I find it to be more of a parody of Pokemon than an outright intentional jab at Nintendo's internal property.

Nintendo's business practices have increasingly become "no fun allowed," and they threaten litigation against fans and other companies alike for the bare minimum of reasons. Part of me thinks, "is this just a Japanese litigation thing towards internal properties?" but then I see how Sonic fan games flourish. Sometimes Sega steps in, but largely they are supportive of the Sonic fan-game community. Some of the best official Sonic games in recent years were created in large part from fan devs that got their start in Sonic fan games.

Nintendo needs comeuppance, because there is no justice in their actions.