Summary

  • The Pokémon Company is launching an investigation into the similarities between Pokémon and the game Palworld.
  • Palworld has been highly successful, selling 8 million copies and having over 2 million concurrent players on Steam.
  • The Pokémon Company's statement addresses the claims that Palworld's Pals are too similar to existing Pokémon and mentions "another company's game released in January 2024."

After fans pointed out similarities between Palworld, The Pokémon Company has launched an investigation. Palworld has been hugely successful, selling 8 million copies since it was released in early access on January 19, 2024, and the game currently has the second-highest all-time concurrent player count on Steam with over 2 million players, placed only behind PUBG with 3.2 million.

As reported by the BBC, The Pokémon Company has now released a statement declaring its intent to "investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon." While the full statement doesn't specifically mention Palworld by name, it is very clear this statement is in response to the survival game's success, and the claims that many of Palworld's Pals are way too close to existing Pokémon, as it mentions "another company’s game released in January 2024."

Cattiva from Palworld, Meowth from Pokémon, Pikachu from Pokémon, and Sparkit from Palworld standing next to each other
Related
5 Ways Palworld Is Better Than Pokémon (& 5 Ways It's Not)

Palworld is the newest entry into the creature-collecting genre, with a myriad of aspects that it does better and worse than top competitor Pokémon.

Pocket Pair's CEO Claims Palworld Is Closer To Survival Titles Than Pokémon

Palworld was deemed "Pokémon with guns" by many upon its reveal in June 2021, and the concept of playing as a "pal-tamer" and training creatures called "pals" does seem similar as a concept to the relationship between a Pokémon trainer and their Pokémon. There have also been parallels drawn between some of they visual designs of Palworld's Pals and specific Pokémon with some fans going as far as to accuse the Pals of being AI-generated works based on Pokémon's designs, although there has been no evidence of this so far.

The AI claims seem to mostly stem from Pocket Pair CEO Takuro Mizobe's fascination with an experiment about creating generated Pokémon with extremely early AI tools in a series of 2021 posts that have been captured by Springtick380 on X.

Palworld's developer, Pocket Pair, has insisted that its game is much closer to survival sandbox titles such as Ark: Survival Evolved and Valheim, however, with a focus on resource management and other survival-based mechanics. The company's CEO Takuro Mizobe previously stated in an interview with Automaton that the company has "absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies" and that Palworld ed several legal checks before its release.

Whether The Pokémon Company's investigation will also deem this to be the case is yet to be seen. It has already started taking action against modders who have replaced Palworld's Pal-tamers and Pals with Pokémon characters, however, leading to Nexus Mods stating it won't host these kinds of mods on its site for fear of legal action.

Source: BBC, The Pokémon Company, Springtick380/X, Automaton