Four days: this is the short time it took for a modder to transform the monsters of the phenomenon Palworld into real Pokémon.
This is also the record time it took for the Japanese studio Pocketpair to record more than 5 million sales on its event title, for a development cost estimated at 1 billion yen (or approximately 6.2 million dollars). ‘euros). Not without being the subject of numerous accusations of plagiarism, or even, according to its CEO Takuro Mizobe, of “ death threats “. With this mod, we can bet that things will not improve.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus sweaty?
Nothing seems to stop Palworld, the game mixing survival/construction mechanics, capturing Poké… Pals and manufacturing very real firearms. Released in early access last Friday, the Pocketpair title has now exceeded the exorbitant figure of 5 million sales.
On Steam, we can see that the game has exceeded the symbolic peak of 1.5 million users connected simultaneously. It thus represents the second most played paid title in the history of the Valve platform. And that’s without taking into account the fact that Palworld is also available on Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass. Truly staggering figures.
Such success and the fact that the game’s monsters are inspired (to remain politically correct) by Pokémon gave an idea to a modder. Spotted by ToastedShoes and still in development, this will truly transform Palworld into an unofficial Pokémon game. From the appearance of the Pals to that of the human characters, this mod intends to modify everything to apply an overlay taken from one of the most lucrative franchises of all time.
A huge success that hides something?
If Palworld could already give buttons to Nintendo and Game Freak, the existence of this mod certainly risks making things worse. It may be that the days of this fan creation are numbered. One could even say that this is the case of the game itself.
Some indeed thought that there was something fishy in the face of this truly explosive success. Pokémon fans have particularly studied the monsters in this game to discern the similarities with our favorite pocket monsters. And this sometimes seems to go further than simple inspiration. Certain assets from the latest recent Pokémon games have even been largely copied.
Others went even further and studied the journey of the Pocketpair studio more closely. Its CEO, Takuro Mizobe, has in the past shown a deep interest in generative AI. Some critics of Palworld also believe that such a tool was used to mix different Pokémon designs to create Pals.
The man at the head of Pocketpair offered a response to the anthology of accusations against him, and especially towards the artists allegedly responsible for creating the monsters in the game: “ I would appreciate it if you would refrain from slandering the artists involved. We create our games very seriously and we have no intention of infringing the intellectual property of other companies “.
If other compromising elements like those cited above were to surface, the legal teams of Nintendo and Game Freak could however have all the cards in hand to build a case against Palworld. Are the days of this already globally successful game numbered?
Sources: ToastedShoes on X.com ; onion_mu on X.com ; byofrog on X.com
4