Palworld devs confirm Nintendo did “nothing” about Pokemon copycat allegations

Palworld was rocked by controversy during its launch thanks to allegations of Pokemon plagiarism but devs have confirmed that the famously litigious Nintendo hasn’t taken any action.

It’s hard to believe that we’re six months out from the launch of Palworld. The monster-catching phenomenon took the world by storm racking up over 2 million concurrent players on Steam.

The hype has calmed down a little now as it usually does but back at launch, all anyone could talk about was Palworld. Of course, not all the talk was positive with plenty of people accusing developer Pocketpair of plagiarism over the remarkable similarity between certain Pals and Pokemon.

Nintendo even dropped an intimidating response that it would “take appropriate measures” to defend its IP. Though according to a Game File interview with Palworld Director Takuro Mizobe, it never went further than that.

It’s understandable that there would be some anxiety from fans about possible action from Nintendo given a post-launch Pal looked like a Mega Mewtwo color swap. Certain legal takedowns from Nintendo around the game’s launch also had players worried but it appears they never needed to.

“[We heard] nothing at all,” Mizobe told Game File. “Nintendo and the Pokémon Company didn’t say anything to us.” He revealed earlier in the interview that his first taste of game development actually came from a training program sponsored by Nintendo.

“Nintendo wanted students to create a new game,” Mizobe said. “So I learned how to create a new game and think in a unique style of game development.” Perhaps that’s where he developed such a similar style of design.

Palworld’s Sakurajima update arrives on June 27, 2024 which could see the game back in the spotlight. Fortunately, the new Pal designs aren’t as clearly inspired by Pokemon as those at launch so the devs should be safe for another six months.