I had never heard of Palworld until several Twitch streamers started playing it. The game launched on Steam (possibly as a beta) and there seemed to be a lot of excitement over it. I was watching a streamer go through the character choices. The game offered male and female characters, with a variety of skin tones and hair colors.
At first, I thought Palworld was a survival-type game where your character builds a home and gathers food. But, no, that really wasn’t the way Palworld decided to go. Upon starting the game, a bunch of animal-like characters appeared that seemed to be made for the player to collect. But, something didn’t feel right.
“Is this a Pokémon game?” I posted in the chat of the streamer I was watching. What made me reconsider that assumption was when the player character started using guns to hunt down and collect Pals.
Engadget reported that Palworld, released on January 18, is an open-world game featuring monsters that look like Pokémon, except they can use guns. It also has a darker theme, allowing players to sell their “pals” to slavery, kill them and eat them aside from being able to battle them to the death. It has gotten a lot of attention since it was released, according to its developer Pocketpair, it sold 7 million copies on Steam alone in just five days.
As you may have suspected, The Pokémon Company has taken notice of Palworld. It posted its thoughts in two languages, (Japanese, and English). Here’s from the English version:
Inquiries Regarding Other Companies’ Games
We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024. We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game. We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon. We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future.
— The Pokémon Company.
Kotaku reported that Pocketpair has stated that it jumped through all the appropriate hoops to ensure Palworld wouldn’t be subject to a copyright lawsuit, though the game’s monsters have been derided for their similarities to specific Pokémon. Some have suggested that, despite the similarities, Palworld would fall under Parody Law, which protects media that imitates other projects in an “exaggerated comedic fashion.”
IGN reported Palworld developer Pocketpair has insisted its game is much closer to Ark Survival Evolved and Valheim than Pokémon. Additionally, the team revealed has been receiving death threats ever since the game when live on January 19.
According to IGN, Pocketpair community manager Bucky, who has been active on Twitter / X and Palworld’s Discord, posted to say they had received death threats since the game went live in early access form on January 19.
Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe also tweeted to say they had received death threats, and hit out a “slanderous comments.”
“Currently, we are receiving slanderous comments against our artists, and we are seeing tweets that appear to be death threats,” Mizobe said. “I have received a variety of opinions regarding Palworld, but all productions related to Palworld are supervised by multiple people, including myself and I am responsible for the production. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from slandering the artists involved in Palworld.”
“Currently, we are receiving slanderous comments against our artists, and we are seeing tweets that appear to be death threats,” Mizobe said. “I have received a variety of opinions regarding Palworld, but all productions related to Palworld are supervised by multiple people, including myself and I am responsible for the production. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from slandering the artists involved in Palworld.”
In other strange news regarding Palworld, PCGamesN reported that one of the biggest videogame modding platforms in the world, Nexus Mods, is hesitant to include any Palworld Pokémon mods on its site due to Nintendo’s history of filing copyright strikes, legal challenges, and DCMAs against projects that use its IP. Nexus tells PCGamesN that it is “not comfortable hosting this content,” but that Palworld mods, in general, will still be available to download.
It is my understanding that those who are playing Palworld will not be held responsible for doing so. That said, the makers of Palworld might face some legal consequences from Nintendo (maker of Pokémon).