Palworld, from Japanese company Pocketpair, has become an overnight success amid the AI and Pokemon plagiarism controversy. It has sold over 5 million copies within three days of its launch on January 19, 2024. However, will its plagiarism allegations hinder this success? Read ahead to find out.
Palworld succeeds amid controversial launch
The alleged ‘Pokemon with guns‘ game has surprised the industry with its record-breaking success. Until yesterday, The Last of Us was PlayStation‘s all-time fastest-selling exclusive game with over 4 million copies sold in three days. Palworld has broken this record amid plagiarism allegations.
Palworld is fun the creatures are cute. But they stole assets. They should not be doing this, it's not proper dev ethics. That is all. I'm not saying the game is bad I am saying the devs did something bad. When you overlap the 3D models the polys are the same. pic.twitter.com/r1rFqyJEFx
— Nintendo Lawyer (@RaphDeslandes) January 22, 2024
This multiplayer monster-collecting game with open-world survival elements is accused of ripping off its creatures from the classic Pokemon. Its foundation is also strikingly similar as both of them require players to capture and recruit creatures to fight in battles.
Wesley Yin-Poole, UK News Editor for gaming website IGN has expressed his surprise over the game’s success stating that it was expected to be well-liked but nobody could have predicted its astronomical success.
Evidence that can become base of a copyright lawsuit
There are many posts and threads on social media platforms such as X (former Twitter) explaining the similarities in the design of ‘pals’ and Pokemon. Some of them aren’t only limited to the appearance and details likeness in their activity, features, and more.
Maybe they're brothers? #Palworld #Pokemon #Lycanroc model from SV. pic.twitter.com/KnGSozfJGQ
— byo (@byofrog) January 21, 2024
These similarities are difficult to miss and have resulted in various complications including boycotts from fans. One of the anonymous users named Byo (@byofrog) published multiple videos comparing the in-game 3D models with Pokemon stating that they’re nearly identical.
VGC contacted AAA game artists who confirmed that these models could become base of a copyright infringement lawsuit. They shared that getting any characters to this similarity requires meticulous copying or creating a new model while keeping the original at the base.
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
They further shared how it is difficult to get such meticulous results from inspiration as they are sometimes asked to copy a mesh for the sequel of a game. For example, copying an NPC but even then they don’t get results as Palworld. Therefore, the 3D models can become compelling evidence in court.
Experts deny the possibility of legal complications
As per most of the industry experts, the game isn’t likely to face any legal charges. Yin-Poole addressed this to BBC stating that the game is more like a mashup of familiar elements from various games instead of a rip-off which makes it unlikely to have any legal issues.
I understand how others feel about Palworld, and it’s understandable. However, slurs, death threats, and other things of those nature are NOT okay.
Y’all need to CHILL on that. Call them out and provide proof, but don’t wish death on people or use slurs towards them…
— Beelzaboo_bs (@Beelzaboo_bs) January 22, 2024
The game’s CEO Mizobe has also explained that the game doesn’t have any problems from a legal standpoint as it has cleared all the necessities and reviews before its launch. Despite this, the game developers and artists are receiving harsh criticism from netizens.
Pocketpair community manager Bucky shared that they have received death threats since the game went live. CEO Mizobe also detailed how he has received numerous slander messages and death threats in the past few days.
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
Although he believes that players have the right to express their criticism; he has requested them to refrain from sending death threats and slander to game developers and artists as the game has been created through teamwork.
