The Problem With Palworld

I am always amazed by the success of games like Pokémon. Perhaps you have heard of it? 

It is, after all, a massive media franchise, one that rakes in an estimated $140 billion in revenue over a relatively short period of thirty years, with growth in merchandise sales, collectible cards, films, anime, YouTube videos, and, of course, the video games, all coalescing it into a titan of a franchise that is impossible to ignore. While Pokémon didn't invent the whole monster-collecting and battling genre, it is the game that perfected that formula into its most user-friendly form; one that is ubiquitous to any other game that occupies its space. 

Considering the game was a labor of love for Game Freak since the early 1990s, it is a truly feel-good story for Game Freak that the gaming world often gravitates towards. Pokémon is ultimately a game that showcases the passion of its development team and a creative vision, and added mechanics. Innovations such as trading through a link cable, the multiple forms and evolutions of Pokémon in the same family line, and even the balancing of types following an elemental formula coupled with raw statistics were hallmarks of unique design elements, slapped onto the existing RPG and monster taming formula seen in contemporaries like Dragon Quest and Shin Megami Tensei.

All of this, to say, is upsetting to see Pokémon, that once untouchable titan, trashed online by the gaming community. This is not without good reason in some criticisms, as a thirty-year franchise, Pokémon has surprisingly not changed its core gameplay loop much within that time, instead finding ways to innovate on existing mechanics around the turn-based system. A valid issue, to be sure, but there are also wholly bad-faith arguments that often crop up in the social media sphere, constantly criticizing Nintendo and Game Freak for their "undeserved success". As of late, that cacophony of noise has gone nuclear thanks to the 1.0 release of the early-access indie game Palworld.

Developed by indie developer Pocketpair, a small Japanese company formed in 2015, Palworld, in its barest form, is a survival building sim, but with Pokémon. Think ARK: Survival Evolved with magical critters, called Pals, whom you can battle with, capture, base build, and more, and you basically got the gist of its gameplay loop. This description essentially sums up the game and its core design, and for many, Palworld is being touted as the David against Goliath, the game that topples Pokémon after a very successful early access period, followed by a fairly successful launch. 

This is impressive for an unknown indie developer in an already overcrowded genre, but there is, as always, more to it than just good numbers. There is a problem with Palworld, one that will actually take some time to investigate, but also one that sort of speaks to the moment - a problem involving artistry, commerce, and creativity, that I feel has not been explored by the myriad controversies surrounding Palworld.

Tracing Inspiration

We should probably get through the surface issues of Palworld first, and that is creature designs and functions. More than anything else, this has fueled the massive social media fire over the validity of the game. Of course, this doesn't help that a massive amount of misinformation has crystallized into half-truths online too, like the lawsuit by Nintendo against Palworld for infringement of patents of mechanics (more on this later) being swept into the accusations.

All cards on the table, though, the designs of the pals in Palworld are the least important issue regarding the game and its identity. That said, they are still an issue because, at best, several designs were traced by the Palworld developers.

Tracing is not theft. Not technically, at least. Famous artists like Norman Rockwell were well known for tracing photographs for their artwork. Comic Book artists like Neal Adams or, more extremely, Greg Land, often utilized tracing or photo references to enhance their own artwork. Disney, quite famously, traced over their own movies during the 1970's as a cost-cutting measure when animated features were less profitable. 

Palworld is no different. Developer Pocketpair, being a small team with admitted limited experience in modeling, even discarding previous work on the Unity engine to Unreal 4, which founder Takuro Mizobe states was a miracle that it worked after gambling on the hiring of an experienced engineer to help guide the inexperienced team. It is not a surprise that multiple designs were directly inspired by Pokémon, to the point where a former employee accused Mizobe of purposefully creating monster designs that "would rank in the top 100 of Pokémon." 

This does not mean designs were stolen or plagiarized, but it does put into perspective why so many designs have similarities to well-known Pokémon, and why a few were redesigned in the 1.0 release for being extremely similar to well-known Pokémon. It is also the first, harsh lesson Pocketpair needed to learn - design inspiration is a difficult process, one that even Game Freak struggles with thanks to the long list of Pokémon fan artists creating creature designs that lead to The Pokémon Company being accused of plagiarism at times.

To Pocketpair's credit, the redesigns do further shy away from their direct Pokémon influence. The models were also reworked to avoid similar postures and model tracing, which Palworld was also accused of two years ago. The lesson, however, is right there: finding influence in what has come before is a difficult, messy process. Pocketpair, inspired by Pokémon to the point of purposefully making designs that could fit into Pokémon, is a tightrope that can buckle at any time. The 1.0 release thankfully saw several newly created monsters that mostly shy away from known Pokémon designs, though some are still directly influenced by what Game Freak has created. It is also important to note that, due to harsh copyright laws in Japan, Palworld had to be fully approved to avoid any copyright infringement, which it did pass.

At the end of the day, the designs of Palworld really represent less of a major problem for Palworld, but rather a symptom of the type of game it is.

Palworld: The Multimedia Franchise

One of the more interesting stories I found regarding Pocketpair was the creation of two new companies after the early access success of Palworld, Pocketpair Publishing and Palworld Entertainment. Pocketpair Publishing is a publishing branch for Pocketpair, providing a home for indie game titles, which is a net positive for the industry. It also provides a new revenue stream if such titles become successful, which, coupled with Palworld Entertainment, provides additional funding and growth for the indie studio. 

Almost echoing Game Freak in the formulation of the Pokémon Company - which is a joint venture that has Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc. formed in 2000 to manage the Pokémon brand - Palworld Entertainment is an agreement between Pocketpair, Sony Music, and Aniplex to do essentially the same. Sony as a company is, of course, struggling with its own issues right now, but the move with Palworld, from a business stance, makes perfect sense when you consider how quickly Palworld has found success.

Palworld has had a successful launch despite being a small-budget indie title. Founder Takuro Mizobe spoke in 2024 about the surprise success of Palworld, noting that it blew away the numbers from their previous title, Craftopia, by a massive margin. 

"It’s about 1.4 million right now (1.8 million as of 1/19). For Craftopia, the figures were somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000, so it’s a tremendous increase. As for the demographics, Japan probably accounts for less than 10% of the Wishlists. Palworld has become quite the global title, with the largest percentage of Wishlists coming from the U.S. I think the ratio probably reflects the general proportion of Steam users."

Palworld is estimated to have had about 25 million copies sold since early access became available and is one of the largest indie hits on game websites such as Steam. Along with this, Pocketpair has also announced two more projects related to Palworld: Palworld: Palfarm - a Harvest Moon/Animal Crossing hybrid complete with fishing, farming, and russian roulette, and a Palworld card game from Bushiroad. 

It is interesting how quickly things are moving for Pocketpair, yet the generation of a multimedia franchise like this is often an arduous one when you step back and consider what type of franchise Palworld is trying to be.

Multimedia franchises are common enough in every industry, but for pop culture, Pokémon is, of course, still king. As mentioned previously, over 144 billion dollars in gross revenue since 1996, with another $3.3 billion in corporate revenue counted in 2024. In comparison, the nearest competitor to Pokémon has been the Hello Kitty franchise, netting an estimated amount between 80 and 118 billion in gross revenue since 1974.

Nothing else can compare to the success and growth of Pokémon that quickly, even with merchandising and franchises dabbling in multiple forms of revenue streams. Every card pack, video game, anime movie, or stuffed toy purchased by fans fuels the merchandising machine, allowing Pokémon to grow so big, so fast, and often, to its own detriment. The Pokémon Company has become the necessary bottom line for the entire multimedia franchise, something that is to the chagrin of fans and ammunition to critics. 

This is, ironically, the same path Palworld is following, albeit, I would argue, with less of a chance of massive success. For one, Palworld, being in the survival base-building genre, should really focus its energy on dethroning the juggernaut of Minecraft before anything else.  Minecraft has an estimated 350 million copies sold throughout its lifetime, with mobile earnings alone bringing in $100 million in revenue yearly. Combined with marketing, merchandising, game spinoffs, and the Minecraft movie, the genre stands at the pinnacle of survival games at an estimated 10 billion dollar franchise. A good chunk of this is from merchandising, estimated to be over $3.3 billion in revenue alone, before we get to licensing and other revenue streams. 

It would also lose some of its appeal through its design. The kitsch factor of Palworld, with the oft-stated (and frankly stupid) cry of "Pokémon with guns," is silly, but it has more weight to it than can hold it back from growing beyond the established games in the survival space. If the barometer of success for a survival crafting game is Minecraft, some of the more oddball elements of Palworld, the chainsaws, the darker in-jokes, and yes, the guns, can potentially hold it back from the massive success it is now gearing for due to clashing design and competing development philosophies.  

More pointedly, Pocketpair itself is fairly candid about what it is trying to accomplish with Palworld. Mizobe himself noted that the goal of Palworld was just to make a fun game, and the combination of past experiences making open-world crafting simulations with monster pets was not to set any trends, but just to make something they would enjoy. In a post on Note, Mizobe notes the challenges in making a fun game with "small-scale development" compared to large-scale development, but candidly points out the following (roughly translated):

"Conversely, in large-scale game development, the goal is to develop in a safe and unremarkable way. In other words, development that avoids failure.

In modern times, the safest development approach is to use a powerful IP (such as Dragon Ball or Harry Potter) for the graphics and to implement a game system that is as safe and unremarkable as possible…Because if you combine good graphics with a solid, proven game system, it will sell well commercially. A game that is simply profitable doesn't need to be explosively fun. A safe, unremarkable game can be reasonably enjoyable in its own way."

Since the success of Palworld's early access, the company has grown to have 55 employees in two years. Their growth as a studio is fast but may be a double-edged sword for the long run. It is clear that there is a drive for Palworld to become a multimedia franchise, but the real catch will be if Palworld is successful outside of Palworld. With a heavily saturated market filled with merchandise and revenue streams, the explosive success of the game thus far is a good start, but only time will tell if it bears fruit. 

On Innovation

They say all publicity is good publicity, and if there is one thing Palworld was able to capture, it was attention. Palworld certainly did that with the aforementioned "Pokémon with guns" comparison, and honestly, if it weren't for the original negative press surrounding the creature designs, I have a feeling Palworld would not have been as on the radar as it was in 2024. 

In fact, Palworld would probably not really warrant much scrutiny from Nintendo either, if it were not for the lawsuit Nintendo filed against Palworld for patent infringement. The lawsuit itself has nothing to do with the designs of the Pals in Palworld. Just to be upfront, Nintendo's lawsuit, which focuses on game mechanics such as capturing creatures with a thrown ball, aiming an object at a character for capture, and riding the character. 

Nintendo's patents are, to put it bluntly, impossible to hold, though the case has not had an official ruling regarding Palworld yet in the Japanese courts. At the time of writing this, a ruling is scheduled for the fall of 2026.

I bring up the lawsuit because, while I personally think Nintendo is mostly out of line with the lawsuit, it does bring up an interesting point regarding one aspect that has not been wholly discussed: gameplay. As stated, Palworld is not an RPG, but a survival crafting game, with Mizobe stating it is more similar to ARK: Survival Evolved than anything else. From those standards, the inclusion of the Pals, the monster-taming aspects, on the surface, does seem like a unique spin on the genre from a casual perspective.

Until you realize ARK did the same thing with its mechanics. In fact, ARK: Survival Evolved is not even alone in that space anymore either. Games such as No Man's Sky, Conan Exiles, and even Minecraft have elements of taming animals and monsters, compounding the fact that nothing new is really designed by Palworld here. The only true change is, of course, the method of taming, hence the lawsuit from Nintendo.

This is perhaps the biggest flaw Palworld has as a game; it truly doesn't innovate much of anything. The novelty of the creature designs and the mish-mash of gameplay elements is all it has. Of its core mechanics, not much is truly new. Base-building is mostly right out of the playbooks of other games, crafting utilizes some of the same materials, breeding Pals is through eggs, the types of Pals available encompass a simplified typing chart straight out of Pokémon, and otherwise, most raid-style bosses and multiplayer setup is ripped from other games whole cloth.

The only real innovation I can see an argument for is the automation of base building through your Pals, as they have certain work traits that allow them to do work in your base, from farming to watering plants to even generating electricity. Attached to this is a sanity meter, which depletes if Pals are overworked or not living comfortably. 

This is a solid, time-saving method of the gameplay loop, which in turn does make the game feel more fun, but even then, some indie games have elements of this in their design philosophy. Astroneer is one such example. Though more about terraforming planets, Astroneer can have players build auto-extractors, programmable arms, and even set up logic systems to automate resource gathering and base construction. Automation of mechanics, especially in a game genre that requires grind to succeed, is often a design choice that allows for easier, more accessible gameplay.

 Is it a one-to-one comparison in the end? No. In fact, for Palworld and its fans, the combination of these elements done decently is where the charm of Palworld truly stems from. Pocketpair was able to manufacture a product that provides fun through a myriad of mechanics and provides a solid gaming experience. Palworld does deserve some praise for being a fun game, and make no mistake, it is a fun game.

But it is a fun game at the cost of innovation. 

Conclusion - The Problem with Palworld

The problem with Palworld is not that it is a bad game, nor even the whole controversies seen online. The problem is that it is a game that is creatively bankrupt of anything truly unique.

This takes nothing away from the development of Palworld and the struggles Pocketpair went through in making it. If anything, they should be praised for their game, which has been a success, and for the growth of their company through that success. It is a story that mimics Game Freak in so many shades that it is almost impossible not to compare the two.

However, while it is deserving of its success, it must also be noted what it truly is. As harsh a criticism as it is, Palworld achieved this success off the backs of its controversy and will forever be tied to a game series it can never match up to. The most daming part of this is the main point of praise I have seen constantly online regarding Palworld: This is what we wish Pokémon would be.

Whether they mean graphics or mechanics, open-world multiplayer or base building, the identity of Palworld does not stand on its own, forever compared to Pokémon as a false rival to a franchise that it will never frankly match. It has no true innovations outside of its Pokémon-like designs to stand on as of now,  and that becomes a problem for Palworld after the initial burst of fun wears off.

Palworld is often positioned as a gut-check for Game Freak, a gotcha moment to argue that Pokémon has lost its spark, that Game Freak is lazy, or that they don't deviate enough from their formula. Yet, such framing diminishes the work put into a game like Palworld, a game highly popular in a crowded niche. If Palworld cannot stand on its own merits without inevitable comparisons to Pokémon, then Palworld has a major problem it needs to eventually address. 

If nothing else, it also showcases the flaws that Pokémon has and the need to address them. For years, fans have clamored for changes to the Pokémon series, open worlds, better graphics, ditching turn-based gameplay, and voices in cut-scenes. While experiments in mechanics through the Legends series are becoming more commonplace, the development cycle of Pokémon is growing longer. There is a desire for Pokémon to continue to find ways to evolve into something beyond its turn-based roots, improve its graphical presentation, and thread the needle of the massive titan it has created. Palworld has just made it clear that for some, the design of a game like Pokémon is the only thing preventing them from playing it.