All Of Palworld's Controversies, Explained

Palworld sheep with guns

Okay, let’s do this. If you’ve been on Twitter this past weekend, you’ll probably have seen a significant amount of controversy around the biggest hit of the year so far, Palworld. Described as “Pokémon with guns” by many (including us), it roared to life when it was released on Steam and Xbox Game Pass after a few years of viral marketing.

Now, after selling millions of copies, there are seemingly a million controversies surrounding the game, some of them borne from legitimate criticisms and some of them somewhat overblown. There are some serious accusations of asset theft and copyright infringement and some less serious but still questionable claims of AI usage and NFT nonsense.

So let’s break down the biggest of these claims.

Does Palworld Use AI?

One of the biggest claims against Palworld is that its monsters, called Pals, were designed with AI, or maybe even modeled entirely using AI. Some of this comes from the fact that developer Pocketpair’s CEO, Takuro Mizobe, is quite outspoken on Twitter about his support for generative AI technologies, which have been controversial for a number of reasons. The company also released a game in the past that used generative AI as a core game mechanic, so you can see why people were concerned.

At the time of writing, there is no evidence that generative AI was used to create designs for Pals in Palworld. Yes, Mizobe is outspoken about AI, and even tweeted in the past about using generative AI for creating Pokémon-like creatures, but some of those tweets have been taken out of context – in some instances, he was responding to an article about generative AI – and many of the earlier designs for Palworld were shown off well before generative AI got good enough to create designs like this.

Related: Foamstars’ Use Of AI Proves It’ll Never Beat Splatoon

That doesn’t change the fact that Mizobe is all in on AI, and that is a red flag, just like it was when Square Enix went all in on AI and just like it was when companies like Bandai Namco, Sega, and more started experimenting with it.

That said, there’s also no way to confirm whether or not AI was used at some point in the development process. All we know for sure, thanks to Steam’s recent policies around AI disclosure, is that the game itself doesn’t use generative AI or feature any assets generated by AI. Speaking of assets…

Did Palworld Steal Pokémon Models and Assets?

This is a huge accusation to level against a developer, and it’s one that’s quite pervasive online. Many social media users have said that Palworld’s models are ripped out of Pokémon, edited slightly, and dropped right into Unreal Engine 5. Like the AI claim, people have pointed to a lot of what they claim is evidence of this model ripping. And don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of models in Palworld that look very similar to models in Pokémon.

But so far, there’s still no evidence that any models were ripped off entirely. Modders who’ve extracted the files and compared them to the meshes of Pokémon models have found that while some of the meshes are close, none of them are exactly alike. That’s a pretty good indicator that the models were made by hand, rather than ripped from another game. It’s not an absolute guarantee, but when you get down to the meshes, devoid of textures and context, the similarities start looking a lot less similar.

Did Palworld Plagiarize Pokémon?

This is a very thorny question that needs an immediate caveat: I am not a lawyer and I am not qualified to say whether or not something is outright plagiarized. I have had basic legal training for media – both as part of employment and as a university student – but I’m treading carefully here for a reason. I’m making absolutely no claim of illegality here, nor accusing Pocketpair of plagiarism, copyright infringement, or any other offense.

So, with that out of the way, let’s look at the bare facts. Some designs featured in Palworld bear a resemblance to existing Pokémon designs, at least in part. Users on Twitter have posted comparisons, and while some of them have features that are definitely similar to existing designs, others are just features that you’d see on any, say, dog-type or dinosaur-ish design.

Others have leveled claims of copyright infringement against Pocketpair, and suggested that The Pokémon Company or Nintendo could sue over some of these similar design elements. You’d think, though, that if that were going to happen, it would have happened before now. Palworld has been going viral for years now, since it was announced in 2021, and many of the designs that are drawing controversy now have had years of exposure.

If Nintendo, a famously litigious company, were going to do something you’d think it would have done so when it was announced, or when it blew up every few months on TikTok, or when it signed an Xbox Game Pass deal. The fact that it hasn’t done anything yet means one of two things: either Nintendo somehow hasn’t noticed yet, or Nintendo doesn’t think it’s worth pursuing. I’d wager the latter, but who knows what goes on behind closed doors.

Related: Palworld Player Count Sales Soar Past Major Milestone in Eight Hours