Now with over 6 million copies sold, Pocketpair's Pokémon-like game continues to be talked about. Between accusations of plagiarism and the use of AI, the general public is wondering about the individuality of the project. Is it really a copy of Pokémon? The general enthusiasm, although mostly positive (according to the sales figures), is unfortunately accompanied by more virulent reactions. While design comparisons are piling up on social media, Palword's developers have revealed that they were the target of death threats.
For now, there is no indication that this title, freely inspired by many successful licenses, truly violates copyright laws. The same goes for the use of AI, accusations that the teams deny. Despite this, Palworld – or rather content created by a player – is already Nintendo's target. A mod shared by the Youtuber Toasted and then widely distributed by players allowing to replace the characters and Pals of the game with the heroes and creatures of the franchise Pokémon has just received a reminder to order from the Kyoto firm.
Hands off the Pokémon!
Nintendo and Gamefreak were quick. Barely a day after the video was published on Twitter, the mod has already received a ban on sharing and use, even before it was put online by Toasted. The shared extracts have also disappeared, to make way for the mention “This media has been deactivated following a report from the copyright holder“.
Since Palworld is already bordering on the limit of what is reasonable in terms of inspiration, it is not surprising that such a project was killed in the bud. Especially since the Japanese manufacturer is known for the attention it pays to its licenses. Fan game projects and other rom hacks rarely see the light of day, generally stopped by a formal notice.
Toasted had promised to share his mod today, but it will be otherwise. Now, the content creator is also the target of the angry community. Criticized for refusing to share the files before they were banned, Toasted finally said: “I have had a lot of people asking me where they can get the mod etc. We wanted to give it away for free to everyone, but due to Nintendo sending a DMCA on the last tweet, we are going to proceed with caution for now.” Indeed, Nintendo has already sent an Australian man to jail with a whopping $1.6 million fine for hacking and distributing New Super Mario Bros Wii before its official launch.
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