Japan’s Nintendo yesterday said that it has filed a lawsuit accusing the developer of a video game jokingly dubbed “Pokemon with guns” of patent infringement.
Nintendo and The Pokemon Co are suing Pocketpair, the Japan-based studio behind the Palworld game that became a viral hit when its prototype was released in January.
Palworld — which sold more than 5 million copies in just three days — features weapon-wielding player avatars and monsters that look similar to the creatures of Nintendo’s Pokemon franchise.
Photo: AFP
A Nintendo statement said that the companies had “filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair” on Wednesday.
“This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld ... infringes multiple patent rights,” the statement said.
The statement did not specify how much compensation was being sought.
Nintendo said that it would “take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights” to protect what it has “worked hard to establish over the years.”
Palworld is still in development, but an “early access version” costs US$29.99 for US customers on the online Steam platform.
“Fight, farm, build and work alongside mysterious creatures called Pals in this completely new multiplayer, open world survival and crafting game,” its description says.
Initial reviews of the game were positive, although many pointed out the eerie resemblance of the Pals to Pokemon characters, with critics and users nicknaming it “Pokemon with guns.”
“Most people, myself included, thought this game was going to be a meme,” the account of game developer Pirate Software said in one review left on Steam. “It’s actually insanely detailed, extremely well optimized and compelling as hell.”
Pokemon has been a global hit since it was launched as a role-playing game in 1996 for Nintendo’s Game Boy console. The franchise, whose slogan is “Gotta Catch ’Em All,” also includes movies and an animated TV show.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS