Palworld is the new mass phenomenon. 8 million copies sold in 6 days and counting! (Xbox Series S/X, PC)

[Cyan]

The game has surpassed the top games on Steam in concurrent players by a lot, even games like BG3 and Elden Ring. Also in a fortunate set of events for them, MS added the game to gamepass day 1 and in fact it became the number 1 game on PC gamepass (surpassing Valorant and so on).

Palworld is a survival game ala Ark, Rust, The Forest, etc, which adds pokemon like creatures, and you can collect them, plus it has some nice ideas, for instance, you can get a pal fox that jumps on your shoulder during combat, and very original stuff like that. Unlike the aforementioned games you can avoid invasions and play privately if you want to, something other games like Ark and similar don't have.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1750042162174238906

There has been controversy with the game 'cos some people think the game kinda plagiarizes some Pokemon designs, and the pokebros (hardocre pokemon fans) remain vigilant trying to find comparisons between pokemon and this game so they can sue them. Also things like this....

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1748894703620354294

Palworld on Steam

Fight, farm, build and work alongside mysterious creatures called "Pals" in this completely new multiplayer, open world survival and crafting game!

store.steampowered.com

People are loving the game.

 

[pcchen]

I think this is an interesting story.
Takuro Mizobe (I think it's the CEO of PocketPair) wrote a blog post a few days before the early access release and I find it's a very interesting read.

3日後に命運が決まる、パルワールドという偶然の物語｜ポケットペア

1. 金さえあれば、面白いゲームが作れる訳ではない クラフトピアを開発してから3年間、パルワールドというゲームを作り続けてきた。 それがようやく3日後、リリースされる。 Steam：Palworld / パルワールド 広大な世界で不思議な生物『パル』を集めて、戦闘・建築・農業を行わせたり、工場で労働させたりする全く新しいマルチ対応のオープ store.steampowered.com ここまでの道のりは長かった。 振り返ってみると、凄く回り道をしてきた気がする。 する必要のない失敗の連続だ。 知っていれば、躓く必要のない場所で、何度も躓いた。 業界

note.com

It's in Japanese but Google translate should be good enough.

 

[Nesh]

Its not even that much of a good game it seems. The "formula" that makes it so popular is interesting to pin down. When I saw images of the game for the first time it didn't look like a real game to me. It looked like AI generated

 

[cheapchips]

Its not even that much of a good game it seems.

There's lots of fun to be had with it. It was my game of the week last week! Not sure how much longer it'd hold my interest, but the absurdity of it all is entertaining. Silliness in play is hugely undervalued, and the game is full of silliness.

 

[hoom]

The video appears to be literally a collection of everything I hate in modern gaming all somehow collected together into one

 

[Malo]

There has been controversy with the game 'cos some people think the game kinda plagiarizes some Pokemon designs, and the pokebros (hardocre pokemon fans) remain vigilant trying to find comparisons between pokemon and this game so they can sue them. Also things like this....

I think it's quite naive to think that many of these designs aren't based on very specific Pokemon, and they've obviously trying to make just enough changes to walk the fine line of copyright law for profiteering. I believe they'll likely have to be sued, as if they don't then Pokemon/Nintendo would have a hard time defending designs in future. Will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

 

[Cyan]

I think it's quite naive to think that many of these designs aren't based on very specific Pokemon, and they've obviously trying to make just enough changes to walk the fine line of copyright law for profiteering. I believe they'll likely have to be sued, as if they don't then Pokemon/Nintendo would have a hard time defending designs in future. Will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

they used AI to assist them and this is what happened. The thing is that most people love the game and it is being a success, and this is important 'cos maybe Nintendo are watching just because the game is selling in droves.

A game like Craftopia uses a glider like Breath of the Wild and nobody said anything.

 

[Malo]

they used AI to assist them and this is what happened.

Absolutely not a legal protection of course.

A game like Craftopia uses a glider like Breath of the Wild and nobody said anything.

A glider that as a concept has been used in many games for decades, and in reality as a concept has been around for hundreds of years, and most definitely not something that can be copyrighted?

 

[milk]

Everething I've always seen of this game seemed incredibly derivative, un-inpired and incongruent. I dont understand what other people have seen in it. Its like somebody picked random sonichu crayon fan-art from an autistic kid devian-art page and used it as a design document.

 

[cheapchips]

they used AI to assist them and this is what happened.

In what capacity? The ability to generate 3d game models didn't exist when they first showed the game. Are 3rd party AI tool even mature enough yet?

Even training up a model just for 2d concept art seems not worth the effort, given what limit remixes of Pokemon /Dragon Quest monster they are.

 

[Theeoo]

Looks like the type of game that would do well in East Asian countries. Not Japan though, since they seem to hate PC gaming.

 

[iroboto]

Everething I've always seen of this game seemed incredibly derivative, un-inpired and incongruent. I dont understand what other people have seen in it. Its like somebody picked random sonichu crayon fan-art from an autistic kid devian-art page and used it as a design document.

It’s very much a remix game. They saw many things that people liked and worked and threw it all into 1 game.

We see that a lot, and this is just one of those titles. We see many games borrowing elements from other games to create new genres.

Like imagine your whole life playing Pokemon and just thinking what it would be like to have a real time version of the game. This is it.

It’s like, when we went from Ultimate Online to world or Warcraft. That leap in game design is the next big thing for them. It’s all they’ve ever wanted or didn’t even know they wanted.

 

[pcchen]

I think one thing this game does very well is it trying to be fun to play. The developer did not try to make a game easier to monetize or deliberately harder to grind to inflate playing time. It's just fun to play.
In a way, it's really not that hard to make something like this, especially if you are a big game developer. Ironically, it's exactly why these big game developers don't make games like this anymore, because they (most of them, at least) put squeezing money from players above everything else.

 

[Jupiter]

The creatures look like Pokemon. The similarities are too great.

Nevertheless, the last Pokemon games were a cheek from a technical point of view. Nintendo is trying to exploit its brands to the maximum with far too little effort. Competition is good.

 

[cheapchips]

The creatures look like Pokemon. The similarities are too great.

That's essentially part of the fun / silliness of them working your base and weiding weapons.

Whether they've changed the designs enough to avoid a lawsuit depends on whether the Pokémon Company think they can win a case. From the chat with a IP lawyer I watched, IP law is very much in the hand of how the judge feels on the day.

 

[Cyan]

It’s very much a remix game. They saw many things that people liked and worked and threw it all into 1 game.

We see that a lot, and this is just one of those titles. We see many games borrowing elements from other games to create new genres.

Like imagine your whole life playing Pokemon and just thinking what it would be like to have a real time version of the game. This is it.

It’s like, when we went from Ultimate Online to world or Warcraft. That leap in game design is the next big thing for them. It’s all they’ve ever wanted or didn’t even know they wanted.

 

[Cyan]

Absolutely not a legal protection of course.

Still, I don't find the prosecution of this game to be fair, and maybe it's me but aren't they exaggerating things a bit?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1749243751460188233

Some comparisons are grazing absurdity like this one:

Maybe Pokemon is inspired by other games too. In this case we can call it inspiration, so it doesn't count...

 

[Cyan]

someone asked Yoshida, Sony's CEO, if the game could come to the Playstation and he said yes. Btw, the game has beaten Counter Strike in the most played game list, crazy.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1748602328603890089

 

[pharma]

Modder who accused Palworld of using 3D models from Pokemon games admits that he has faked everything

The modder who accussed Palworld of using the 3D models of from various Pokemon games admitted that he has faked everything.

www.dsogaming.com

 

[Cyan]

Modder who accused Palworld of using 3D models from Pokemon games admits that he has faked everything

The modder who accussed Palworld of using the 3D models of from various Pokemon games admitted that he has faked everything.

www.dsogaming.com

the Pokemon company and many people seem to have taken him seriously....

Following some of the article's links, it leads to some mods.

This mod adds Raytracing to the game.

RTX RayTracing and DirectX12 for your Pals- Ultra Quality Config

Enables some of the RayTracing functions, changes the rendering API to DirectX12 and increases the overall quality by customizing the Ambient Occlusion and shadows resolution. It haves a really big im

www.nexusmods.com

There is also a mod that adds FSR3 FG.

Palworld Just Got an AMD FSR 3.0 Frame Generation Mod

Modder 'PureDark' has just released a new mod for Palworld that allows you to enable AMD FSR 3.0 Frame Generation.

www.dsogaming.com