Palworld showed Nintendo how to make a good Pokemon game, but will it cost a lawsuit?

It took just three days for Palworld to sell five million copies, an impressive feat for any video game, but particularly one that’s still in “early access” on the Steam video game platform, which allows developers to sell still-in-development titles. The game was also simultaneously released on Microsoft’s Game Pass.

The open-world indie game, which has been dubbed “Pokémon with Guns” by some fans, quickly surpassed big budget games like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 in concurrent players, with a peak of 1.85 million. SteamSpy estimates the game has now sold between 10 million and 20 million copies.

Despite that success, Palworld has come under fire for allegedly imitating Pokémon characters. Critics note the similarity of several Palworld creatures to the more famous IP. There are enough similarities that one account on X (formerly Twitter) has taken to documenting them. 

The Pokémon Company initially declined to comment on Palworld and its similarities, though the company later released a public statement saying, “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.” Nintendo (which is a partial owner of the Pokémon Company) also seemingly flexed its muscle Tuesday, alledgedly issuing a DMCA takedown over a user-made mod to the game that turned Palworld’s main character into Pokémon’s Ash—and all of the Pals into Pokémon.

(That mod, for now, is on ice, its developer says. “I’ve been getting a large influx of people asking where they can get the mod etc.,” he wrote on X. “We want to release it for free to everyone, however due to Nintendo sending a DMCA over the last tweet we want to tread lightly for the time being.”)

Pocket Pair, the Japan-based maker of Palworld, did not respond to Fast Company’s request for comment, but the company’s CEO, in a prerelease interview with Automation, an online publication, said the game had completed a legal review. “We make our games very seriously, and we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies,” he reportedly said. 

Another Pocket Pair game called Craftopia, which was released in 2020, drew comparisons to Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for its gameplay and art style.

Copyright issues?

While the Pokémon Company has nothing to say at present and Nintendo has only gone after modders that blatantly violated their intellectual property, the legal questions on Palworld may not be settled yet.

Keith Wesley, managing partners of Ellis George and an expert on copyright litigation, tells Fast Company that video game characters are subject to copyright protection—and that could extend to similarly shaped characters. It really comes down to the differences between the two.

“The character must be sufficiently distinctive and used consistently to be protectable,” says Wesley. “And the scope of the protection will be limited to the original expression. In other words, Disney cannot stop me from using a talking mouse in my movie.  But Disney can stop me from using a talking mouse that has similar features—e.g., color, shape, personality, etc.—to Mickey.”

But when it comes to Palworld and Pokémon, Wesley says it isn’t clear cut. “Where there is not an exact or near-exact copy, there can still be infringement, but it will likely be the subject of lawyer arguments and evidence that reasonable minds could disagree on,” he says. “In short, it is that kind of issue where the lawyers earn their keep.”

While still incomplete, Palworld currently commands a price of $26.99. That’s about half the price of a Pokémon game (and it’s playable on PC instead of being locked to the Nintendo or mobile ecosystems). More importantly, perhaps, it has buzz. Players are flocking to the game to see what everyone’s talking about. This comes on the heels of disappointing review scores for last year’s two Pokémon Scarlet/Pokémon Violet titles, which Metacritic, an amalgamation of reviews, currently scores at 65 and 70 out of 100.

Palworld’s hardly the first game to use characters that looked familiar to players. Previous copyright cases involving distinctive characters from other titles, says Wesley, including World of Warcraft, League of Legends, and Duke Nukem. And in the early 1980s, Midway Games took the maker of “knock off” games to court—and won—over arcade clones of Pac-Man and Galaxian. That case helped set the precedent that a video game qualified for copyright protections. 

“I have personally represented Atari in seeking to enforce copyrights against defendants who used characters such as that in Centipede,” he says.

Controversy may or may not help sales, but it won’t impact whether players like the game. While Palworld does not have any formal reviews yet, the word from outlets who have played it has been positive. 

“While still in early access, Palworld is far more polished and engaging than many other creature-collecting games out there,” wrote Windows Central. “The inclusion of survival mechanics, challenging combat, crafting, and exploration all work together to make one of the most compelling games in years.”

Update, January 25, 2024: This article has been updated with a statement from The Pokémon Company.