Pokémon TCG Pocket suddenly extracts card designs involved in stolen as the company acknowledges “production issues” and launches a wider investigation

Pokémon pushes new designs sharply Pokémon TCG Pocket Transaction cards, amid the controversy of its obvious origin.

Fans have said that the card is the ho-oh ex of the ocean and sky in the game, based on the art of plagiarism, and in a statement released today, Pokémon essentially acknowledged that.

Now, the artwork of the card – and the artwork of its sister Lugia's former card (also included Ho-Oh design) has been pulled out of the game, just hours before Sea and Sky's global launch. In resolving the situation, Pokémon said it was “deeply apologizing for any inconvenience (d)” and is now reviewing all other cards to ensure no other designs are at fault.

“For our community, thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for Pokémon Trade Card Game Pocket,” Pokémon Corporation Write. “We want to share important updates about the upcoming expansion, ocean and sky wisdom. What caught our attention was that there was a production problem with the illustrations of Ho-OH in immersive card artworks of Ho-Oh Ex (3-Star) and Lugia Ex (3-Star).

“After internal review, we found that the card production team provided incorrect materials as official documents provided by the illustrator who commissioned the cards. As a result, both cards were replaced by temporary placeholders, i.e. the team actively replaced new artworks as soon as they were ready.

“We are also conducting a broader investigation to ensure there are no similar issues elsewhere in the game.”

Currently, the acquisition card shows an empty card design with an awkward appearance of “art-new” text – then an immersive artwork with a black screen instead of the card. It doesn't look very good.

I can't believe I opened this guy in Pokemon TCG pocket 🤯 pic.twitter.com/3st3ilatsw

– poli (@profpoliwag) July 30, 2025

Yesterday's controversy followed the wisdom of card design in the ocean and the sky and was checked online, Raises wider discussion on Pokémon's legal provisions – This seems to indicate that the company can do anything you like using fan-made designs.

Today’s action strongly suggests that while Pokémon might legally say it can use fan designs, in fact, it usually doesn’t want to do that, or make fans think it now sees Fanart as a fair game for commercial use.

“We apologize for all the players we have been looking forward to this expansion, and for the talented illustrators who bring the Pokémon world to life, for any inconvenience this has caused to you.” “We take this issue very seriously and are committed to strengthening our quality control process to prevent this from happening again.

“Thank you for your understanding, patience and ongoing support for Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. We are still committed to providing an experience you can enjoy.”

Video game industry legal expert Richard Hoeg, who is hosting virtual legality sales, said Pokémon’s legal provisions on fan art are acknowledgement that fans will create their own Pokémon art, but from a legal standpoint, any openly shared design falls under the ownership of Pokémon Company.

“It looks like it's effective to say 'look, we (TPC/Nintendo) are still the only ones allowed to make spin-offs (including fan art), but we all know you're going to do that.”

However, today's statement suggests that Pokémon TCG's pocket will soon be no longer fan artwork.

Tom Phillips is the news editor for IGN. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on the Blues @tomphillipseg.bsky.social