Released on January 19, 2024, Palworld has managed to sell 6 million copies in just five days. Except probably being one of the best-selling new releases of 2024 already, it has flared much controversy. The controversies surrounding Palworld don’t only revolve around being a rip-off of the famous Pokémon games, infringing copyrights, or the unethical use of AI. Still, they also revolve around the game’s mechanics, like animal exploitation, slavery, and gratuitous violence. And like everything controversial, Palworld has fiery supporters and zealous opposers.
What is Palworld, and how is it played?
Palworld is an action-adventure survival game developed by the Japanese studio Pocket Pair. The game unfolds in an expansive, open world filled with animal-like creatures called “Pals.” These Pals serve various purposes, including aiding players in base building, traversal, and combat. Palworld offers solo and online gameplay, supporting up to 32 players on a single server. Initially announced in 2021, the game entered early access in January 2024, accessible on Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
The “Pals” in Palworld are essentially animals of this world, just like Pokémon in the Pokémon Universe. The players can use firearms and equip their pals with them, hence the nickname “Pokémon with guns.” Pals possess unique partner skills, can be used as weapons or mounts, and can be employed for various tasks such as battling, scavenging, crafting, cooking, and more.
The game also introduces various factions as antagonists, like a crime syndicate, a Pal liberation movement, and a police-like island defense force. These factions are led by powerful Pal trainers residing in Towers across the islands who act as the main boss battles in Palworld. The human NPCs associated with these factions may patrol the world, engaging in battles and hostile encounters with players.
Plaworld also has a wanted-level system triggered by violence against humans. If the wanted level is high enough, the player will encounter the law enforcement force equivalent of the game. Then, they can either run away or kill their pursuers.
Why Palworld caused controversy?
As mentioned, major controversies revolving around Palworld involve copyright infringement and the use of AI. The design and look of the Pals in the game resemble the Pokémon in the famous Pokémon franchise. Their function in the game, along with their interactions with the player and the world around them, also resemble the dynamics in the Pokémon Universe. Their designs seem to be more caricatured versions of the Pokémon; they are captured with a ball called the “Pal sphere,” much like the “Poké ball” in Pokémon. They are servants that are put to drudgery by the player or die for the player’s sake, either defending their base or attacking a rival.
Takuro Mizobe, the CEO of Pocket Pair, Palworld’s developer and publisher denies any inspiration from the Pokémon Universe. Instead, he claims that the concept of the game was inspired by Ark: Survival Evolved, survival mechanics were inspired by Rust, and the Dragon Quest series inspired the creature designs.
Mizobe denies the inspiration from the Pokémon Universe in an interview with The Gamer, and in a blog post on Note, he claims that 100 of the monsters were designed by a single designer whom almost 100 companies previously rejected.
“She was a new graduate and had applied to nearly 100 companies, but failed them all. And she is now drawing most of the characters in Palworld.”
Mizobe’s enthusiasm for using AI, which he expresses through social media accounts, raises or escalates the claims involving the unethical use of AI in Pal designs.
Heads up to anyone thinking of supporting/playing Palworld who also cares about genAI issues… The CEO of that studio is full speed ahead on generative AI, frequently promotes it and tries to push its use in his studio. Even made a game focused entirely around it using SD. pic.twitter.com/6fwvzhh6g7
— Invertex (@invert_x) January 19, 2024
Although the biggest of the controversies, Pal designs are not the only topic of dispute or criticism involving Palworld. The game lets the players capture humans in Pal spheres, too, and the captured humans can be butchered.
Along with various game dynamics, its world is criticized for being generic and barren and for its insistence on ethically questionable behavior. Some criticize Palworld for relying too heavily on shock humor about animal abuse and sweatshop labor across all facets of gameplay. But not everyone negatively reacts to Palworld. Some players praise the ability to play and fight along with the Pals, and some perceive the game as a harsh satire on capitalism, animal exploitation, and even the monster-catching genre. Some even praise the game for disrupting the genre on the premise that the Pokémon games have become stale and non-innovative.
the palworld vs pokemon discourse is so stupid because if you're a true Pokemon fan you'd WANT Palworld to be crazy successful so Game Freak will finally get off their thumbs and do something legendary. competition is healthy. it's a win win for consumers.
— Omni ☕️ (@InfernoOmni) January 22, 2024
Is Palworld a rip-off of Pokémon?
Palworld sure looks like a slightly different game with Pokémon designs slapped on it, with guns added for a little bit of extra fun. Design slightly modified Pokémon, borrow some elements from the outstanding titles of various genres, and boom! You have a profitable game. But the matter of where inspiration ends, and imitation begins has been debated for centuries, and we are not arrogant enough to claim that we’ll put an end to that argument in a single article.
Palworld is such an OBVIOUS rip off of Pokemon and other games. I’m going back to playing Valorant. pic.twitter.com/1USE5EXryp
— Squeex (@SqueeX15) January 22, 2024
So many movies, songs, video games, paintings, and even firearms are inspired by another or accused of being a rip-off. Duke Nukem can be accused of being a rip-off of Doom. Fallout was accused of being “A Morrowind with Guns.” PUBG’s developers even tried to sue Fortnite for being a rip-off of their game. Is Cities: Skylines a rip-off of Simcity, or is the Forza series a rip-off of Gran Tourismo? Is League of Legends inspired by Dota or ripped it off? As a WWII history enthusiast, I can’t help but ask, did you know that the Russian legend AK 47 that you see almost in every FPS game is inspired by the German StG 44?
Palworld’s Pals sure look like Pokémon, and you don’t have to compare the specifics of the 3D designs to come to that conclusion.
TFW you and your cousin have exactly the same proportions. #Palworld #Pokemon (Luxray model from SV) pic.twitter.com/1nyq7t1k0a
— byo (@byofrog) January 21, 2024
The critics and the gamer community must have agreed to that since Palworld has become famous as the “Pokémon with guns.” For the sake of the argument, let’s even assume that Takuro Mizobe publicly admitted that the game imitates Pokémon. So what? The game has sold six million copies in five days and still counting. We are not claiming that being the majority automatically makes something right, true, ethical, or legit, but there is another lesson to learn here. Palworld has given the gamer community something that it has been yearning for, and the community has embraced it with open arms.
Yes, it’s frustrating to see something that you like being ripped off blatantly and shamelessly. Yes, AI is still a threat to people who make a living in creative jobs. But who can read the developers’ minds and know whether they intended to rip off Pokémon, and who decides where inspiration ends and imitation begins?
There’s a saying in Turkish that goes: Imitations praise the originals. (or imitations keep the originals alive) The Pokémon Universe probably will not be hurt because of the existence of the Palworld. If anything, all this controversy around Palworld is perhaps doing good for both games. But sometimes, imitations surpass the original, become more successful, and get to be remembered. There are many other imitations, even blatant rip-offs, of the Pokémon games. We’ll see if Nintendo takes any legal action against this one, and whether it will surpass the original is a thing to see in the future.
PocketPair, the company behind Palworld, is located about 10 minutes drive from The Pokemon Company. Junichi Masuda is going to deliver the cease and desist by hand. pic.twitter.com/IH6SNUae3G
— Jordan Middler (@JordanMiddler) January 19, 2024
NEXT: Interview with Midjiwan, developer of The Battle of Polytopia
