The Pokémon Company recently announced a slate of upcoming titles for its long-running and incredibly lucrative video game franchise. But those games aren’t the reason for the Pokémon-related headlines of the past month. That honor goes to “Palworld,” a survival strategy game unofficially known as “Pokémon With Guns.”
Ranking of all Palworld weapons!
Created by Japanese indie developer Pocketpair for PC and Xbox, the game allows players to capture and befriend cartoon creatures called Pals, which many claim bear more than a passing resemblance to a certain Pokémon. Some online critics have even accused Pocketpair of lifting visual assets directly from the Pokémon games or using AI to create the Pals, citing the company's heavy use of AI in its previous game, "AI: Art Imposter."
And “Palworld” isn’t the first Pocketpair game to be accused of skirting the IP boundary, as previous game “Craftopia” drew comparisons to “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” upon launch.
Pocketpair denies intentional copying, but has not commented specifically on the use of AI. Meanwhile, The Pokémon Company has not committed to potential legal action.
