When Palworld was released at the start of 2024, it not only became immensely popular, but it was in danger of bringing the Pokémon Company. However, despite concerns that Pocketpair‘s monster survival game was surely going to end up being embroiled in Pokémon copyright claims, it doesn’t look like there have been any developments on that front so far.
Was Palworld ripping off Pokémon?
An interview with Pocketpair’s CEO Takuro Mizobe over on Game File says that no one has contacted the studio in an official capacity regarding Palworld potentially breaking copyright law.
Despite the game being out for over six months now, it seems that “nothing concrete in terms of legal communications or outreaches” has been mentioned by anybody associated with the Pokémon franchise.
This could suggest that Palworld is in the clear, particularly given Nintendo’s reputation for being quite ruthless when it comes to cease-and-desist orders. Mizobe goes on to say that neither Nintendo nor the Pokémon Company has said anything regarding the subject.
For those who don’t know, Palworld is an open-world survival game in which players capture small and adorable monsters called “Pals.” While the game has been successful in its own right, many were quick to point out the similarities between these creatures and the ones from Pokémon, which has almost certainly been a source of inspiration.
Palworld briefly dominated the gaming industry not long after it was launched on PC and console in January 2024. According to the third-party site SteamDB, it achieved a peak concurrent player count of over 2.1 million. It’s gone down as one of the most-played games on the Steam platform.
As of now, it looks like there’s no investigation into any alleged Pokémon copyright infringement and Palworld is free to keep doing its thing.
