Yesterday, some leaked artwork from an upcoming expansion for Pokémon TCG Pocket showed what appeared to be traced over fan art for the new Ho-Oh EX card. While some people were jumping to the conclusion of plagiarism, most simply wanted an explanation of what had happened or if the art was even real. Late last night, The Pokémon Company addressed the situation, and it turns out the answer is both simpler than that and a little dumber, too.
In a message on the official Pokémon website, TPC writes, “After internal review, we discovered that the card production team provided incorrect materials as official documents to the illustrator commissioned to create these cards. 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.” In other words, TPC Googled Ho-Oh, found some artwork that looked pretty legit, and sent it to artist Sie Nanahara.
If that sounds kind of absurd, think back to 2008 when Ōkami released on the Wii. Instead of creating some new box art for the Wii release, Capcom Googled a picture of Amaterasu and slapped it on the cover without double-checking. When people purchased their copies, they quickly noticed an IGN watermark on the front. I actually have that version, too, and it’s a hilarious reminder of how big companies will cut corners wherever possible.
To its credit, TPC states that it will be conducting a broader investigation of its internal practices to ensure this situation doesn’t happen again. It also offers an apology to fans of TCG Pocket and states it will do better moving forward. We can only hope so, because no one deserves to have their artwork stolen or their reputation damaged.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
