Palworld, an action-adventure survival game that launched at the weekend, has sold over four million units in just three days.
The game is still in early access but is available via Xbox Game Pass. Developer PocketPair said on Sunday that it was selling 86,000 copies every hour. It currently has a Steam player count of 1.4m and is third in the Steam most played games chart.
Dubbed "Pokémon with guns", the game combines elements from hugely popular games like Breath of the Wild, Fortnite, Valheim and others.
But the launch hasn't come without its controversy. Users said there were similarities between the creatures in Palworld and the designs of Pokémon.
Key elements of the game include building a home base and getting a fleet of Pal workers to manage production of supplies and gear. The second element involves exploring a world full of bosses and dungeons as you aim to collect them.
Artists and game developers have accused the game of being a copy of Pokémon and also that Palworld developer Pocket Pair has used GenAI in the game; however, there is no official evidence this has happened. While Pocket Pair did use GenAI in the game AI: Art Imposter, there is no confirmation of the use of AI in Palword itself, despite it being called “an AI product”.
On Monday, the game’s director – and CEO of developer Pocket Pair – Takuro Mizobe responded to the accusations. While he did not deny any influence from Pokémon, he claimed the game’s artists had received online abuse and asked for it to stop.
“We are currently receiving abusive and defamatory comments against our artists, in addition to tweets that appear to be death threats,” he wrote on X, translated by Video Games Chronicle.
“While we have received various opinions about Palworld, it is important to note that the supervision of all materials related to Palworld is conducted by a team, including myself. I bear the responsibility for the produced materials. I would appreciate it if these comments towards artists involved in Palworld would cease.”
On Sunday, the controversy continued when an anonymous account on X claimed to show evidence of plagiarism of game assets.
User "Byo" posted videos comparing Palworld’s in-game 3D models to those of Pokémon.
Maybe they're brothers? #Palworld #Pokemon #Lycanroc model from SV. pic.twitter.com/KnGSozfJGQ
— byo (@byofrog) January 21, 2024
Hoeg Law attorney Richard Hoeg commented: “I can’t speak to the ‘science’ used on this Twitter account, but certainly evidence of actual assets being stolen is the kind of thing that is likely to make a more successful case. Simply being ‘inspired by’ existing designs, even if that goes so far as to use certain design rules (proportions, coloration, curve usage, eye size, etc) is generally not.”
