The Pokémon Company has released an official statement, presumably about survival game Palworld, in which it vows to ‘investigate’ whether it infringes on its property.
Since Palworld’s announcement in 2021, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have kept surprisingly quiet about the game’s similarities to their own monster-collecting franchise. As the multiplayer survival opus has repeatedly broken sales and player count records since its release on the 19th January, however, it sounds as though the owners of Pokémon have been prodded into giving a response.
In a press release put out on its official website – and available in both English and Japanese – The Pokémon Company responds to “inquiries regarding other companies’ games”.
Interestingly, Palworld isn’t mentioned directly by name, though given the wording and timing, it’s clear what game The Pokémon Company is talking about.
Here it is in full (thanks, Game Informer):
We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024. We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game. We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon. We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future.
It is, in short, the company serving notice that its copyright lawyers are looking closely at Palworld, and no doubt working out just how closely its assets and mechanics follow those found in Pokémon games and merchandise.
Often dubbed ‘Pokémon with guns’, Palworld is set in an open world and sees humans existing alongside pastel-coloured animals called Pals, which can be caught and armed with weapons. Although the mechanics are reminiscent of recent 3D Pokémon games, the greater part of it is a more typical survival game in the vein of Rust, with lots of grinding and crafting and resource gathering.
The game’s bigger controversy is its creature designs, which undoubtedly look remarkably like Pokémon. Whether there are enough points of difference between Palworld’s monsters and genuine Pokémon is up to copyright lawyers to decide.
For its part, Palworld developer PocketPair insists that the assets created for the game are original – and not stolen and lightly modified, as some have alleged. Its CEO Takuro Mizobe said a few days ago that, “We have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies.”
On the 23rd January, a fan-made mod which placed official Pokémon assets in Palworld – meaning you could see an actual Pikachu running around with a rifle – was quickly served with a cease-and-desist notice by Nintendo lawyers, and all traces of it were wiped from the internet. Even a trailer showing the mod in action has now been deleted.
As Palworld’s player count soars past the 8 million sales mark on Steam, the whole legal saga could be just getting started.
