Pokémon Sleep dev denies copying fanart for in-game designs 

Recently, there had been rumors circulating among Japanese users on social media that Pokémon Sleep’s depictions of sleeping Pokémon may reference or even copy existing fanart. Koya Nakahata, the director of Pokémon Sleep and CEO of Select Button, took to his personal X account to directly deny these rumors. 

The sleep tracking app Pokémon Sleep depicts unique sleep styles of numerous Pokémon, which are designed to reflect each Pokémon’s biological characteristics and temperament. Several (no longer publicly visible) posts had made allegations that the sleeping Pokémon designs imitated existing art made by fan illustrators. The rumors escalated far enough to reach the ears of the game’s director Nakahata, who swiftly denied the allegations, as seen in the post below. 

While noting that Pokémon Sleep references the existing official Pokémon games and their depictions of sleeping Pokémon, Nakahata categorically denies any possibility of the development team copying fanart for the game’s designs. In response, the public has largely supported the developers’ stance. 

Fanart and fan submitted ideas can often lead to trouble for the source content’s creator, which is why many companies sternly refuse to accept or even view content submitted by fans. For example, Game Freak, the developer of the Pokémon series, has a disclaimer on their website that warns users against sending ideas such as proposals, designs and scripts while noting that such inquiries are checked and disposed of by staff not involved in game development. 

On the other hand, the issue of Pokémon Sleep’s designs is more complicated, as it involves fanart posted on social media, rather than a direct submission. In this case, it’s very difficult to prove whether a developer saw the fanart or not. The Pokémon Company has established guidelines for intellectual property rights for derivative creations (i.e. fanart). According to these guidelines, creators and users of derivative content grant Pokémon and its affiliates a nonexclusive, sublicensable, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license to use all or part of the derivative content for any purpose and in any format. Regardless of whether such use actually occurs, these regulations exist to prevent any fanart-related troubles from arising. 

With that said, the allegations this time around have been firmly denied by Pokémon Sleep’s developer. 

Translated by. Amber V (original article’s publication date: 2024-05-14 16:50 JST)