Summary
- Despite its success, Palworld still deals with negative sentiments and accusations of AI-generated game content.
- Developers responded to the accusations by releasing concept art and the approval process for new designs.
- However, they know that there are still those that don’t believe them.
While Palworld eventually went on to carve its own niche, it couldn’t escape the ‘Pokemon with guns’ tag. This tag wasn’t unfounded, though, as there were quite a few similarities between the two, drawing the ire of Pokemon fans, and eventually Nintendo itself. This led to a lawsuit, resulting in Palworld updating its Palspheres capturing feature.
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If Nintendo is successful, it will set a dangerous precedent for the future of the games industry.
The ordeal may be behind Palworld, but it seems like there are still those who dislike the game despite its popularity, purely because of its similarity to Pokemon. As global community manager John Buckley put it, it was “super popular to hate Palworld”, especially since it became an “impressions printing machine.”
Don’t Hate The Game, Hate The Player
Speaking at a GDC 2025 panel, Buckley revealed that despite Palworld’s success, there’s still a negative sentiment towards it. On top of dealing with Nintendo’s lawsuit, Pocketpair was accused of using generative AI to create the game’s world and the Pals themselves. However, he reiterated that this was not the case, but expects there to be doubters still.
“I could stand here and tell you we didn’t AI generate Palworld, but at least five people in this room are going to say ‘liar.’ But that’s what it is. We’ve kind of given up repeating this, but we didn’t, I promise,” he said (thanks PC Gamer).
He explained that in light of these accusations, the devs decided to go “go on the offensive,” and released concept art along with the approval process of new Pal designs, called a Pal Vote. This was an internal vote where devs would reveal if they liked the concept for a Pal or not.
“I think very few companies could survive a post-Palworld situation like we did,” added Buckley. “I think a lot of companies might crumble under the threats, under the pressure, under the negativity, but we managed to retain all of our staff. We managed to push on because we’re such a close and tight knit company.”
Open-World
Shooter
Survival
- Released
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January 19, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen Due To Violence
- Developer(s)
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Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Publisher(s)
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Pocket Pair, Inc.