Exploring a world, capturing cute critters, making them fight each other. Sound familiar? OK, now add guns, slave labor, and the ability to stab those critters with a machete if they underperform. Welcome to Palworld.

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The Long Read 📖

Pokemon Co says it’s investigating viral “Pokemon with guns” game

The Pokemon Company says it’ll take action over any infringement of its intellectual property rights after the launch of a viral game that’s been dubbed “Pokemon with guns”.

The game sees players exploring an open-world environment called the Palpagos Islands, which is also inhabited by creatures known as Pals which have special powers. Players must survive by capturing Pals and putting them to work by farming, cooking, building shelters, and fighting enemies.

Palworld is just the second game made by Japanese indie developer Pocketpair, but has been an instant hit since it was released on 18 January. More than 300,000 players logged on ($) to the game on Friday, momentarily causing servers to crash. Since then, Palworld has sold more than five million copies and is one of the most played games ever on the Steam marketplace.

Its extreme violence is a striking feature that marks a departure from the gentle nature of Pokemon games. As well as guns, players can use a meat cleaver to – among other things – slaughter Pals.

The game’s success has drawn the attention of Nintendo, which owns about a third of The Pokemon Company. It shut down a preview of a mod that added actual Pokemon to the game, allowing players to capture creatures including Pikachu and put them to work in brutal conditions. Nexus Mods, one of the biggest modding sites, also confirmed it won’t be hosting Pokemon-themed Palworld mods.

The Pokemon Company is also looking into any possible infringements. In a statement, it says it has “received many inquiries regarding another company's game released in January 2024,” and that it intends “to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokemon.”

Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe said its artists had been on the receiving end of abusive and defamatory comments as well as “tweets that appear to be death threats”.

“While we have received various opinions about Palworld, it is important to note that the supervision of all materials related to Palworld is conducted by a team, including myself,” said Mizobe. “I bear the responsibility for the produced materials. I would appreciate it if these comments towards artists involved in Palworld would cease.”

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