Despite Palworld being inspired by Pokemon, some serious infringement issues are going on. Hence, keep reading for info on Palworld sued by Nintendo
Even though 2024 has just started, we already have a banger of a game that is taking the internet by storm. Yes, the game is none other than the latest open-world survival and crafting game developed by Pocketpair Inc. called Palworld. As soon as the game was released, players started noticing the eerily similar features in the game that match Nintendo’s beloved franchise, Pokemon and dubbed it, “Pokemon with Guns.” Hence, the internet is anticipating a lawsuit in the making, but is that true? Keep on reading to find out whether Palworld sued by Nintendo is actually a true statement and all the drama surrounding the game.
Palworld was released on January 19, 2024 for PC on Steam and for Xbox along with Game Pass. The game is still in early access and it is centered around capturing creatures, training them, shooting everything to the ground (Fortnite?) and crafting to survive in an open world. Yes, the concept is very similar to Pokemon and fans have been calling it “Pokemon with Guns” since the game’s announcement in June 202, but the character designs are just blatantly disturbing. One of the most uncanny similarities that gamers have found is between the Pokemon “Lucario” from Generation 4 and the Pal, “Anubis” in Palworld.
Other than that, most, if not all of the character models are eerily similar all the way down to the proportions as noted by animators or 3D model artists on Twitter. User Cecilia on X/Twitter created a whole thread showing all of the similarities between Palworld Pals and Pokemon.
I went through the entire 111 list of Pals in Palworld to see what seems like a Pokémon rip off compared to not, because I’ve seen a lot of people talk about it but no full comprehensive list. Here’s what I found (it’s a lot) 🧵 pic.twitter.com/EPSpBvC9hD
— Cecilia Fae 🍂 (@CeciliaFae) January 21, 2024
Palworld Sued by Nintendo: The Truth
Contrary to popular belief, Palworld has not yet been sued by Nintendo. Even the devs of the game, specifically the CEO of Pocketpair Inc., Takuro Mizobe has come out saying that they are not worried about a lawsuit from Nintendo. This is because they do not have any intention of infringing upon the copyright of Pokemon. According to the devs, the game passed all sorts of legal reviews and is not infringing upon the Pokemon copyright. For this reason, no legal actions or a lawsuit has been sent out by Nintendo against Palworld, at least not yet.
In another interview, Takuro said that Palworld is indeed heavily inspired by the beloved franchise, Pokemon because it was the “greatest predecessor” and set the standard of all creature capture games in general. He also said that Palworld is not actually like Pokemon’s original storyline and genre but is more similar to another popular franchise. He compared the game to Studio Wildcard’s popular survival and action-adventure crafting game we all know and love, Ark: Survival Evolved. In the end, Pocketpair Inc. is not worried at all about the “Palworld sued by Nintendo” headlines because they are openly claiming to not be infringing upon Pokemon’s copyright.
No matter what anyone says, Palworld has already become one of the biggest games in 2024, despite not even a complete month of the year ending. As of writing this, Pocketpair has sold a whopping 5 million copies of the game on Steam within three days of release and the hype train is still moving forward. Whether the game is selling because people want to know what “Pokemon with Guns” is like or because they just like collecting and then shooting the creatures – we don’t know. However, the fact remains that despite Palworld being an early access game, it is a force to be reckoned with despite its clear similarities to Nintendo’s legendary franchise, Pokemon.