Pokémon TCG Pocket Devs Cop to "Incorrect Reference Materials" Debacle - But Did They Really Just Trace Fan Art?
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
The Pokémon TCG Pocket devs are in a bit of a pickle after fans noticed a suspiciously familiar Ho-Oh card, leading to an apology and a promise to replace the artwork – looks like someone got their "reference materials" a bit muddled! Now, hopefully this whole debacle doesn't lead to any future problems, aye?
Right, so the Pokémon TCG Pocket team has issued a rather sheepish apology after eagle-eyed fans spotted something fishy going on with the upcoming 'Wisdom of Sea and Sky' expansion. Turns out, one of the Ho-Oh EX cards (and a Lagia EX card too, bless its cotton socks) looks suspiciously… similar to a fan artist's work. I mean, *really* similar. Like, side-by-side comparison levels of similar.
According to Eurogamer (cheers for spotting this one, mates!), the problem arose when the card production team provided, and I quote, "incorrect reference materials as official documents to the illustrator." Now, I don't know about you, but "incorrect reference materials" sounds awfully like a fancy way of saying someone accidentally, or perhaps not-so-accidentally, traced someone else's artwork.
The original artist posted comparison images online, showing their Ho-Oh alongside the datamined card image. The pose? Identical. The vibe? Uncannily the same. The internet, as it tends to do, went wild. (You can see the images courtesy of IGN!)
Anyway, the Pokémon TCG Pocket team are now scrambling to replace the offending cards with placeholder images while they whip up some new artwork. They're also promising a full internal investigation to ensure this doesn't happen again. "To all our players who have been looking forward to this expansion, and to the talented illustrators who bring the Pokémon world to life, we deeply apologise for any inconvenience this has caused," they said in a statement. Fair enough, I suppose.
But let's be honest, this whole thing raises some serious questions, doesn't it? How did this even happen in the first place? And what kind of "quality control process" allows something like this to slip through the cracks? It smacks of a right proper kerfuffle to me, mate!
The 'Wisdom of Sea and Sky' expansion was unveiled during a recent Pokémon Presents stream, alongside glimpses of Pokémon Legends: Z-A and a stop-motion Pokémon TV show from the genius minds at Aardman (Wallace and Gromit, for those playing at home). Seems like the stream had a bit of a shadow cast over it in hindsight, eh? Now, the important thing is they're fixing it. But one does wonder if a bit more… how do I say… *originality* is needed in the Pokémon card creation process, yeah?
Tags: Pokemon TCG, Trading Card Game, Art Theft, Mobile Gaming, Gaming News
Original article: Eurogamer