No, Palworld isn’t going to be a ‘Pokémon killer’
We have our first hit video game of 2024, and it’s a shocker. The eccentric Palworld, an early access game available now on PC and Xbox Game Pass, is smashing Steam records as developer Pocketpair sells millions of copies. That’s thanks in large part thanks to its bizarre elevator pitch, which is succinctly described as “Pokémon with guns.”
That success has come with some heated debates. Palworld earned a lot of criticism in its inaugural weekend as players discovered monster designs that looked nearly identical to some of those in Pokémon. Accusations of plagiarism ballooned into suspicions over AI usage that have yet to be proven. An army of already dedicated fans have rushed to its defense with their own over-the-top claims. That army includes disgruntled Pokémon fans who see the new game as an antidote to buggy titles like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Palworld defenders have already labeled it a “Pokémon killer” and hope that Game Freak learns from its success.
Whether you love it or hate it, that last notion is an absurd one. Palworld can’t be a Pokémon killer because it’s nothing like Pokémon.
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Surviving the discourse
Arguments about Palworld and the threat it poses to Pokémon can be shut down minutes into booting up the game. Pokémon is a narrative-focused RPG with an emphasis on careful team-building and strategy. Palworld is a survival crafting game that mostly has players building bases. It has more in common with Fortnite than it does Pokémon. I have to imagine that any claims that Palworld could defeat Pokémon is coming from people who have yet to play it.
The entire line of thinking falls apart there, but it further erodes when considering the audience for each game. Palworld seems clearly aimed at slightly older audiences, courting
