As far as Palworld goes and the genius of its founders & character designer go, I would personally hold off on the encomiums until the dust has settled some more—both to see if it’s anything but a gimmick (can ‘unlicensed Pokemon but survival’ really hold players long-term?) and also if they even survive (there’s a reason ‘unlicensed Pokemon but X’ is not a large niche). While Nintendo has not yet formally sued them, the official Nintendo statement was not exactly friendly either… And their ex-head-lawyer seems to expect them to sue:
I asked Don McGowan, who headed the Pokémon Company’s legal team from 2008 to 2020 what he made of Palworld. “This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokémon,” he said. “I’m just surprised it got this far.”
(They are also apparently claiming to make no use of AI despite a history of it and even tweeting generative Pokemon, which seems like something that might backfire on them and undermine any narrative of hypercompetence.)
It is a notorious practice.
As far as Palworld goes and the genius of its founders & character designer go, I would personally hold off on the encomiums until the dust has settled some more—both to see if it’s anything but a gimmick (can ‘unlicensed Pokemon but survival’ really hold players long-term?) and also if they even survive (there’s a reason ‘unlicensed Pokemon but X’ is not a large niche). While Nintendo has not yet formally sued them, the official Nintendo statement was not exactly friendly either… And their ex-head-lawyer seems to expect them to sue:
(They are also apparently claiming to make no use of AI despite a history of it and even tweeting generative Pokemon, which seems like something that might backfire on them and undermine any narrative of hypercompetence.)