The new "open-world survival and crafting game" Palworld is breaking records, but part of its success has seemingly been fueled by a lot of heated debate and comparisons online.
One major talking point has been the game's monster designs, with accusations and claims it's taken more than just "inspiration" from the Pokémon series. It's admittedly raised questions about what The Pokémon Company may be thinking, and while there's been no official response, we've now got the next best thing.
Speaking to Game File, former Pokémon Company legal team head Don McGowan, who was the Chief Legal Officer between 2008 and 2020, has chimed in on the conversation, admitting he's "surprised" Palworld even got this far. Here's exactly what he had to say:
“This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokémon. I’m just surprised it got this far.”
Beyond Pokémon, Palworld has drawn comparisons to games such as Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Ark: Survival Evolved, and Valheim. Various other monster-catching series have been caught up in the debate and some other games by Palworld developer Pocketpair have been dragged into the discussion including Craftopia and Never Grave.
This latest comment follows a statement from Pocketpair CEO and Palworld director Takuro Mizobe, who responded to plagiarism accusations - defending the game's materials and claiming certain messages sent to the team had gone too far, with the game's artists supposedly receiving online abuse. Conversation about the state of the Pokémon series has been reignited, too.
Palworld has now sold more than five million copies worldwide in three days and currently has a "very positive" rating on Steam. You can learn more about this game on our sibling site Pure Xbox, with the team mentioning how it has "thoroughly enjoyed" the experience so far.