Pokémon TCG Pocket developer apologises "deeply" after players discover key artwork for its new set was based on fan drawing
The team at Pokémon TCG Pocket – that is to say, the wildly popular trading card mobile game – has released a statement apologising to its community following a report that highlighted a piece of fan artwork which had been copied to create a card, saying it was provided “incorrect reference materials”.
Earlier this week, a Pokémon fan artist posted some comparison images of their own artwork of Legendary bird Ho-Oh next to an image of an upcoming card from Pokémon TCG Pocket’s 2025 expansion, which had been datamined. This datamined card showed the Pokémon in the same pose as the fan artwork, with others surmising that the image had been traced (via IGN).
You can see the two images below, with the fan art on the right:
As such, the developer has said it will now replace these cards with placeholders for the time being, while it works to provide new artwork as soon as it is able. It will also conduct further investigations “to ensure no similar issues” are present elsewhere within the game itself.