Do Better

PCMag is commiting the cardinal sin of clickbait titles that are near libel.

The libel comes from the use of the word "indie". As soon as Sony Music threw money and a contract, for a publishing partnership, Pocketpair stopped being "indie". Pocketpair was undoubtedly ripping designs from Pokemon that were close enough to confuse a child. Nintendo was letting it slide as long as Pocketpair remained independent from major publisher money.

Notice how Nexomon isn't being sued? Notice how Temtem enjoys reasonable freedom? Nintendo allows other creators, that aren't coming dangerously close to the Electabuzz design, to make creative games. While Pocketpair was riding the parody law line, it was a harder fight for Nintendo. But now Sony Music, the original funding house of PlayStation, is stepping in to take PalWorld out of parody and into franchise. 

Not only does the Sony funding make Fair Use fuzzy, as too much funding of PalWorld could impact the value of the original property, but it puts Pocketpair's original purpose into question. Pocketpair was riding on a lot of borrowed good will. Craftopia remains largely unfinished with customers voicing displeasure with the fact that it was abandoned for PalWorld. Abandoning original work for parody work is fine, if the parody work doesn't overshadow it's source material.

Nintendo is relatively small when compared to Sony Music, not to mention Sony Group Corp. Nintendo doesn't have a subsidized contract with the Japanese government to make chip factories. Nintendo didn't spend 2 Billion USD to obtain the largest music catalog in the world. Nintendo didn't sue Microsoft when Microsoft bought ABK. 

Why did Sony Music choose PalWorld? They didn't want a partnership with Nexomon, Temtem, Ark, or even Monster Rancher. It is difficult to deny that Sony, through Sony Music, is directly challenging Nintendo and The Pokemon Company by publishing a product that uses designs close enough to confuse Pokemon's main demographic. 

While Sony Group Corp is obviously using Sony Music as a shield of separation, the fact that Kenichiro Yoshida has already given investor presentations expressing the intent to use their PlayStation Network as a metaverse platform to feature Sony Music artists within PlayStation video games leaves room to believe that there is no separation. 

Would Palworld be protected under Fair Use if the Palworld franchise was strictly for adults? Have vape suppliers and cigarette companies been accused, perhaps even successfully, of marketing adult products to children? It isn't impossible for a corporation to groom (gross) children to be adult consumers, sometimes child consumers, of their adult products. The marketing approach for a Fair Use parody would need to be so tightly controlled that it would be Adult Swim levels of obscure.

Nothing about Pocketpair, Sony Group Corp, or PCMag's behavior in this case is undeserving of scrutiny. Each of them seem to be skirting the line between legal and illegal in a desperate attempt to make money instead of just doing what they already do, but better.