The Pokémon Company has stepped in to ask fans to stop harassing a Pokémon TCG Pocket artist embroiled in a plagiarism scandal.
It's been a long week for the folks at The Pokémon Company, which has been dealing with the fallout of a very public plagiarism accusation. It all started when Wisdom of Sea and Sky's card designs were datamined and examined online earlier this week, sparking a wider discussion over The Pokémon Company's legal terms for fanart, which appear to suggest the company could, if it wanted, do whatever it liked with fan-made designs. A day later, The Pokémon Company pulled the design of a new Pokémon TCG Pocket trading card.
"After internal review, we discovered that the card production team provided incorrect materials as official documents to the illustrator commissioned to create these cards," it said at the time. "As a result, both cards have been replaced with a temporary placeholder that the team is actively working to replace with new artwork as soon as it's ready."
Despite claiming responsibility, though, TPC said it had become aware of "criticism" of the illustrator and has called for fans to refrain from attacking or slandering the artist, once again insisting the blame lied internally.
“Regarding the previously announced issue with the Ho-Oh EX (3-star) and Lugia EX (3-star) illustrations – it has come to our attention that there is criticism towards the cards’ illustrator circulating online," reads a statement posted to Twitter/X, as translated by Automaton.
"The illustration errors were caused by the production teams of The Pokémon Company and Creatures Inc, who provided incorrect materials as official documents to the illustrator, and we intend to take full responsibility for it."
As Automaton explains, the The Pokémon Company commissions art in one of two ways: either by inviting illustrators to provide direct input into a design, or by giving them reference materials that they must follow. In this case, it was the latter, so all the illustrator did was follow the materials they were provided with.
The statement closed on "once again offer[ing] our deepest apologies" and a promise the team will "continue to work harder than ever to ensure thorough quality control and prevent recurrence."
Speaking to IGN this week, video game industry legal expert Richard Hoeg, host of the Virtual Legality podcast, said The Pokémon Company's legal terms on fan art act as an acknowledgement that fans will create their own Pokémon art — but that ultimately, from a legal standpoint, any publicly-shared designs fall under the ownership of The Pokémon Company.
"It effectively says 'Look, we (TPC/Nintendo) are legally still the only ones allowed to make derivative works (fan art included), but we all know you're going to do it," Hoeg said of the terms, "so if you do, on the off-chance it's special, we can use it without otherwise paying you (since it was ours to begin with).'"
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
