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Chinese-made mobile game Pocket Monster: Remake has been struck down by a massive lawsuit from The Pokemon Company. A mobile game rip-off of the Pokemon franchise, Pocket Monster: Remake—previously known as The Pocket Journey, Pocket Monster Reissue and more—was found to have “extensively used design elements” and imagery of the iconic game franchise.
Pokemon rip-off hits massive settlement
In an official statement released online, the team behind the mobile game has officially apologised for breaching The Pokemon Company’s intellectual property multiple times over the past decade. The developers were originally sued for damages to the sum of 107 million Chinese Yuan, the equivalent of around $14,746,416 at the time of writing, but have since reached an undisclosed settlement.
“Our copyright infringement and acts of unfair competition have caused significant economic losses to the rights holders and severely damaged the image of the original Pokémon Video Games. We hereby sincerely apologize to TPC and other rights holders, as well as the vast number of players, consumers, and the general public,” the rip-off game’s developers explained.
Pocket Monster: Remake and it’s number of aliases have since been removed from all app stores, and the game’s frequent advertisements across multiple social media platforms have stopped. The team behind the project have also claimed that they will put a “high priority” on any future projects to make sure they don’t infringe on the Pokemon IP again and that they’ve “learned our lessons”.
As one of the most popular game series ever made, the Pokemon IP is constantly hounded by rip-offs and clones online, specifically on mobile platforms. While Pocket Monster: Remake is extremely glaring in its infringement, countless other rip-offs also exist that make use of Pokemon iconography, gameplay systems and even music.
For more Pokemon news, check out how one player has defiled Pokemon Emerald with the addition of loot boxes, or read about the Halo 3 mod that adds functional Pokeballs into the classic Xbox title.
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