Pokemon Company Investigates Unauthorized Use of Characters in ‘Pal World’ Game

On Thursday, Pokemon Company announced that it would “investigate” the possibility that the studio behind the game “Pal World,” which has sold millions of copies, used Pokemon characters without permission, as reported by Agence France-Presse.

“Pal World,” available since Friday on gaming consoles and computers, is an adventure game featuring an avatar character evolving in a world inhabited by creatures resembling some Pokemon characters. There is a significant resemblance between two characters from “Pal World” and the famous “Pikachu” character from the Pokemon world.

Pokemon Company stated in a statement on its website, “We will launch an investigation and take appropriate action against any intellectual property violations related to Pokemon.”

On Wednesday, “Pocket Pair,” the studio behind the game, announced that it had sold over 8 million copies of its game in just six days.

Pokemon stated, “We have received several complaints regarding a game created by another studio and released in January.” The company did not mention the name of the concerned game and added, “We have not granted permission to use Pokemon’s intellectual property rights in this game.” Pocket Pair has not responded to requests for comment from AFP.

Takuro Mizobuchi, the CEO of the company, wrote on Xbox on Monday, “We have been targeted by defamatory comments, and we have observed tweets containing death threats.”