The Pokémon TCG Pocket team has asked its community to stop directly blaming or criticising the artist who created cards for its mobile trading game using “incorrect reference materials”, which turned out to be unofficial fan art.
Earlier this week, it came to light that fan artwork had been inadvertently used as a reference to create cards for Pokémon TCG Pocket’s Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion. At this time, the developer acknowledged it had “provided incorrect reference materials as official documents” to the artist who was commissioned to create the cards in question. However, it never explicitly stated how the materials were provided, and in the time since many were still directing the blame towards the illustrator themself for copying the fan art.
Now, Pokémon TCG Pocket’s publisher The Pokémon Company together with developer Creatures Inc have issued a new statement, affirming the blame does not lie with the illustrator but with them.
“Regarding the previously announced issue with the Ho-Oh EX (3-star) and Lugia EX (3-star) illustrations – it has come to our attention that there is criticism towards the cards’ illustrator circulating online,” the statement, which was shared via the official Japanese X account of Pokémon TCG Pocket, reads (translated by Automaton).
“The illustration errors were caused by the production teams of The Pokémon Company and Creatures Inc, who provided incorrect materials as official documents to the illustrator, and we intend to take full responsibility for it.”
The companies explained there are two workflows when it comes to creating cards for Pokémon TCG Pocket – either illustrators have creative control over the card designs, which is the most common practice, or the game’s production team create a ‘blueprint’ of what it requires for a card. A commissioned illustrator then tweaks and finalises the concept before it is added into the game, and it would appear that this is what happened with the production of the since-removed Ho-oh and Lugia cards.
The Pokémon Company and Creatures Inc have asked the community to stop blaming and criticising the illustrator for what they admit is their error, and said they will enforce stricter measures going forward, to ensure this kind of mix up does not happen again.
In the meantime, the affected cards have been replaced with placeholders cards which read “New Artwork Coming Soon” in lieu of a creature (see below).
Pokémon TCG Pocket’s Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion was initially announced during last month’s Pokémon Presents broadcast, which also gave us a fresh look at Pokémon Legends: Z-A, and an upcoming stop-motion Pokémon TV show from Wallace and Gromit maker Aardman.