Palworld, the latest survival monster-collecting game from developer Pocket Pair, released this past weekend to record-breaking player counts on Steam. Despite its enormous success, some have accused Palworld of copying Pokemon in its monster designs and even using AI generators to accomplish this. Amidst the allegations, the CEO of the company has now released a statement urging players not to harass its developers with ‘death threats and abuse’ amidst the accusations.
Palworld game director and Pocket Pair CEO Takuro Mizobe released a statement responding to the Pokemon plagiarism accusations. He didn’t deny that Pokemon had some kind of influence on the game’s monster designs, though the focus of his response was on preventing the harassment of the company’s artists and designers after they allegedly received death threats.
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Mizobe’s response (translated by Video Games Chronicle) reads:
“We are currently receiving abusive and defamatory comments against our artists, in addition to tweets that appear to be death threats. 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.”
The response doesn’t directly confirm or deny Palworld‘s Pokemon plagiarism allegations (or mention Nintendo’s IP by name) but reading between the lines, the studio is very aware of the online discussions surrounding the game. However, death threats and harassment against game developers is never justified and regardless of the controversy, it shouldn’t be happening under any circumstances.
The controversy has seemingly done little to dent Palworld‘s success after it launched on Steam and Xbox Game Pass in early access to a huge player base.
Source: Video Games Chronicle
