What the Hell is Going on with Palworld’s Poké-likes?

First unveiled back in 2021, immediately upon its announcement, Palworld was dubbed “Pokemon with guns” by the online community- and it was easy to see why that connection was being made. It was very much intended on developer Pocketpair’s part. The open world survival title’s world is filled with monsters whose designs are instantly and abundantly reminiscent of the monster design style that the Pokemon franchise is associated with, and the fact that you could catch and battle with these monsters, known as Pals in Palworld, only added to the list of similarities.

The “Pokemon with guns” elevator pitch, even though it’s an unofficial one, has clearly worked. Palworld launched in early access just a few days ago, and the success it has enjoyed right out the gate has been startling to see. The game sold over a million units within its first eight hours alone, and it has knocked down multiple sales milestones since then at an alarming rate. At last count, Pocketpair had announced that the game had sold over 8 million units within just 5 days, while on Steam, it had also hit a concurrent player count peak of over 2 million, which is the second-highest ever in Steam history, above the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Lost Ark, Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, Apex Legends, and many, many other megatons. It’s hit one milestone after another at such a rapid pace that by the time this feature goes live, those numbers mentioned above may already be outdated.

To give you an idea of how well Palworld is selling, it’s outpacing and outselling the sales of some of the biggest names in the gaming industry. It’s sold more than all but three Legend of Zelda games, it will soon have overtaken Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and it’s selling faster than even the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarok, which are the two fastest-selling games in PlayStation Studios history. And those are just a few examples out of many that we could talk about for hours. Sure, as a $30 early access game, there is a caveat attached to those comparisons, but it does paint an interesting picture nonetheless- not least because the game has sold as well as it has in spite of also being available on Game Pass.

Palworld’s outward similarities to Pokemon have clearly helped its sales in significant fashion, but there’s no doubt that the quality of the game itself has massively helped things as well. Even in its early access form, it’s an addictive game with a strong core loop, and whether you’re exploring the world and catching or battling Pals, battling bosses, or building bases with your friends, it’s hard not be enjoying yourself. And yet, all of the success that the game has enjoyed has come with a few caveats- most prominent among them being the very clear similarities it has to Pokemon, similarities that are clear enough for the game to even have drawn vociferous allegations of plagiarism and theft.

As a gameplay experience, Palworld and Pokemon are quite different, and anyone who’s played both will tell you as much. Rather than “Pokemon with guns”, Palworld is more “Ark: Survival Evolved with Pokemon”, with the emphasis very much being on the survival side of things, on gathering resources and building bases, on co-opping with your friends. But the titular Pals are undeniably a central part of the experience, and many have pointed out just how close their designs are to Pokemon designs- close enough that even their legality is being questioned.

For instance, over on Twitter, user @byofrog has pointed out several similarities between even the meshes for designs in Palworld and those in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, suggesting that Pocketpair took assets from Pokemon and ran them through an AI generator to develop different variations of plagiarized work. It doesn’t help that Pocketpair also has a history of using AI generative tools, and has been accused of plagiarism with its past games as well- Craftopia, for instance, copies The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s iconic opening almost shot for shot.  The company’s CEO Takuro Mizobe himself has spoken in the past about using AI to bypass copyright laws.

Given the nature of this discussion though, nuance is obviously required. For starters, though Pocketpair’s past stance on AI can certainly raises suspicion, so far, there’s been little to no concrete evidence that generative AI tools were indeed used for Palworld. It also goes without saying that if Palworld’s monster designs are simply inspired (or even ripped off) from Pokemon but not outright stolen, that’s not copyright violation. There’s no shortage of Pokemon imitators that pop up pretty much every week, and the reason that continues to happen is because it’s allowed by law. Call it parody, call it inspiration, call it whatever you will- but simply making monsters that are distinctly Pokemon-like isn’t classified as plagiarism in and of itself.

Of course, if it emerges that Pocketpair did steal Pokemon Scarlet and Violet assets, that would be a completely different story. In that scenario, there’d be little doubt in anyone’s mind that we’re looking at outright theft and plagiarism, and The Pokemon Company and Nintendo would have solid grounds to pursue legal action. Right now, however, when the majority of the evidence on hand is circumstantial at best, it wouldn’t exactly be fair to concretely say that Pocketpair has ripped Pokemon assets and passed them off as its own work. Is it suspicious? Evidently so. Is it worth keeping an eye on? Most definitely. But is it plagiarism? Maaaaaybe? We don’t know for sure- yet.

Palworld is, of course, out now, and I’d bet you everything I own that The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are digging into the game’s files to try and figure out if there’s any plagiarism in play, and if there is, how flagrant it is. In the three years in the lead-up to its launch, the buzz that Palworld generated, especially with its unofficial “Pokemon with guns” moniker, there’s no doubt that the legal teams working with the Pokemon IP would have flagged the game, and now that it’s actually out, there’s nothing stopping them from doing their own research and digging to see how much of a case they have.

The Pokemon Company is, of course, no stranger to dealing with imitators and ripoffs, so the whole Palworld situation isn’t going to throw any new challenges its way that it hasn’t seen before hundres of times. In fact, speaking with Game File’s Stephen Totilo about Palworld, Don McGowan – who was the head of The Pokemon Company’s legal team for about a dozen years – recently said, “This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokémon. I’m just surprised it got this far.”

Clearly, this is a situation that’s going to continue developing in the weeks and months ahead, and watching it unfold in the immediate aftermath of Palworld’s launch has been fascinating, to say the very least, whether it’s the game’s startling success we’re talking about, or all the discussions surrounding whether or not it has plagiarized Pokemon, or if it has somehow managed to toe the line in a manner that doesn’t violate legality. The question now is- at whatever point in the future, after it becomes clear just what exactly has gone on with Palworld’s monster designs under the hood, when we look back at the game, will we look back at it and be impressed with what it accomplished, or with a sour taste in our mouths? That much remains to be seen.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.