Tag: plagio

Palworld is the game you need to play, but controversy is coming with it

Palworld, the Pokémon with guns, has not only achieved several sales and user records on Steam but also stirred several controversies on social media… and rightfully so.

No one ever knows what the next big phenomenon will be. Nor how long it will last or if it will be embraced enthusiastically. If someone knew, they would be swimming in money, because they would know the magic formula to create successes. Unfortunately, that doesn’t exist, and even when it’s evident that something will work, it’s impossible to predict if it will work in the short, medium, or long term, or if a portion of the audience will react negatively to its success. Something that Palworld is currently experiencing in real time.

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Sales nobody expected

In terms of sales, the game has been a success. Despite appearing on GamePass from the start, it has sold four million copies and reached almost 1.3 million players on Steam. Scandalous figures that define it as a resounding success. Something that has also brought it no small amount of criticism.

Although Palworld is gameplay-wise a copy of games like Ark, shamelessly stealing its UI, or Rust, many people have pointed out the obvious influence that Pokémon has had on the game’s design. Defined by many as “Pokémon with guns”, some Twitter users are conducting analysis to demonstrate all the extreme similarities between the creatures of Palworld and some Pokémon. Some of them reaching uncomfortable points. Some even bordering on legal action.

It also doesn’t help that Takuro Mizobe, the CEO of Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, is an avid advocate of generative AI and in particular, the ease with which it can create new Pokémon designs. It also hasn’t helped that the studio has a game, AI: Art Impostor, that uses an AI image generator as one of its main mechanics, or that all of its projects, past or future, are heavily inspired by other popular video games. Including Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse, their game expected to be released in the first quarter of this year, which looks like a ripoff of the popular Hollow Knight.

While it is true that the opinions of the company’s CEO and Pocketpair’s own practices do not help Palworld, there is currently no evidence that they have used generative AI to create the game’s assets. It also cannot be proven conclusively that they have plagiarized Pokémon designs. However, due to their track record, the suspicions of many users are more than justified. And considering the success that Palworld is achieving, although it is true that a portion of the audience seems not to care, it also seems evident that this controversy is far from ending silently just because it sells well.

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Shakira’s ‘Acrostic’ Under Scrutiny: Is the Singer in Hot Water for Plagiarism Yet Again?

Shakira has once again been in the pillory for cheating on the exam. And it is that looks suspiciously like a song by Paula Mattheus.

Plagiarism like you-u-u-u-u-u-u-it’s happened again. After being accused of plagiarizing her session with Bizarrap by using the same cadence as a Venezuelan singer named Briella (the comparisons, truth be told, leave no room for doubt), now Shakira has been pilloried again for copying in the exam. And the fact is that ‘Acróstico‘ looks suspiciously similar to a song by Paula Mattheus. What an eye, Shak.

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Just like you

This case may not be as flagrant as Bizarrap’s, but it is true that it leaves the door wide open to possible coincidence. The fact is that ‘Te lo dije de verdad’, which came out a year ago, shares chords and melody with the song that Shakira plays on the piano with her children (that’s another controversy for another time). The lyrics are radically different, but anyone would say that the singer likes to compose “by ear”.

Mattheus, of course, has come to the fore explaining that let’s see. That surely it’s a coincidence and nothing has happened here, right? These are things that happen in music, everything is invented and, in the end, it will serve to promote the career of a singer much less known than the Colombian but who has great collaborations with David Otero, Despistaos or Rozalen. Not with children, for whatever reason. Shakira 1-Paula Mattheus 0.

These are not the first times Shakira has faced accusation for plagiarizing a song. In 2019 she went to trial along with Carlos Vives for the composition of ‘La bicicleta‘, of all songs in the world. In this case it was Liván Castellano Valdés who denounced them for the song ‘Yo te quiero tanto’, from 1997. The singer herself said that there was nothing similar and the judge gave her the reason, but has not ruled on the comparisons with Mattheus and Briella: although never of the two has any interest in getting into a trial, you never know if you can sal-picar.