The Pokemon Companyhas finally responded to the overwhelming popularity ofPalworld, issuing a statement that claims that it will “take appropriate measures” against anything that infringes on intellectual property rights related to Pokemon.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week or have zero interest in video games as a whole, chances are you’ll be aware of Palworld’s impressive rise in popularity. At the time of writing, the game has sold over 8 million copies on Steam alone, not taking into account Xbox sales or players on Xbox Game Pass. It has alsodrawn criticism over allegedly plagiarized Pokemon designs, which fans have been gathering over the course of the week to prove that developer Pocketpair has been pinching ideas from Pokemon.
It’s become such a hot topic at the moment that it seems to have forced The Pokemon Company itself intoissuing a statement via its official website, as it claims it has “received many inquiries” about another company’s game that launched in 2024. While Palworld is never mentioned in the statement, it’s hardly going to be anything else given how much attention it has attracted.
The statement goes on to explain that The Pokemon Company has not granted anyone permission to use Pokemon assets in said game, and will begin investigating Palworld, taking “appropriate measures” to ensure that Pokemon’s intellectual property has not been infringed. Those are the only details that the statement really gives us in terms of details surrounding their investigation, or whether this will potentially lead to legal action down the line.
While The Pokemon Company states that it’s investigating Palworld, this statement could also have been issued due to certain mods that have been circulating over the past few days, whichhave been replacing Palworld’s signature Pals with Pokemon. Nintendo has been very quick to stamp out mods of that nature, and this could be The Pokemon Company simply beating its chest to scare away further modders.
Either way, we’ll have to wait and see what The Pokemon Company’s investigation turns up, and whether it will actually go after Palworld itself. Chances are that it won’t, as there isn’t really much to take issue with apart from some similar monster designs, and this statement very much feels like The Pokemon Company is just telling people to stop bothering it. We’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out though.
