Pokémon TCG Pocket’s latest Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion faced an awkward stumble out of the gate: it featured plagiarized art of the legendary birds Ho-Oh EX and Lugia EX. Developers Creatures Inc. and DeNA promised the plagiarized art would be removed and replaced, and thanks to an update today, these cards now feature the official artwork.
When Wisdom of Sea and Sky first launched on July 30, an artist by the name of Lanjiujiu came forward with a comparison of their own art of Ho-Oh and the version that was seemingly traced over for the expansion’s cards.
The developers immediately released a statement about the incident, claiming that “the card production team provided incorrect reference material as official documents to the illustrator commissioned to create these cards.”
Due to these issues, Pokémon TCG Pocket was forced to pull the art from both Ho-Oh EX and Lugia EX, the latter of which featured the plagiarized Ho-Oh artwork. That meant that for the next week players who cracked packs and received these legendary cards were greeted by an admittedly hilarious sight: a completely plain card that simply featured text saying that new artwork would be coming soon.
Now though, both Pokémon cards boast entirely new art, and players who already pulled them should now have the updated assets. Interestingly, IGN spotted that the new replacement designs are credited to the same artist, Sie Nanahara, who also made the now-pulled art that these cards first launched with. In response to Pocket’s plagiarized assets, as well as their swift removal, Lanjiujiu shared, “I appreciate the prompt resolution and hope this matter rests here.”
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