Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket Accused of Using Fan Art Without Credit
A recent controversy has erupted within the Pokémon community, with accusations that The Pokémon Company has incorporated fan-created artwork into its new mobile game, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, without proper attribution or compensation. The artwork in question, featuring the legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh, was reportedly created by fan artist lanjiujiu.
the Ho-Oh artwork appears in Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket not only as a standard card but also within an “Immersive Card” for Lugia, which features animations. This specific Ho-Oh artwork was initially commissioned by PC House Studio,a company known for producing unofficial character models from anime and gaming.
While many fans are rallying behind lanjiujiu, some have pointed to The Pokémon Company’s publicly available legal facts. This policy states that any fan art created using their intellectual property grants The Pokémon Company a “royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license” to use, transmit, copy, modify, and display such fan art and its derivatives for any purpose. This clause suggests that The Pokémon Company reserves the right to utilize and adapt popular or striking fan-created content.
This situation draws parallels to recent plagiarism accusations in the gaming industry. Earlier this year, the mobile game Marvel Snap faced similar criticism when an artist claimed the progress team had used fan art they had created in 2018. Another instance involved comparisons between artwork in marvel Snap and art from the 2012 Japanese tokusatsu drama Kamen rider Wizard.
Fans have encouraged lanjiujiu to take legal action. Though, given The Pokémon company’s significant legal standing, pursuing such a case may prove challenging. Polygon has reached out to The Pokémon Company for comment and will provide updates as they become available.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is developed by Creatures Inc. and DeNA, with artist Sie Nanahara having previously contributed artwork to multiple Pokémon trading card game releases.
