Less than a week after its early access release, Pocketpair’s contentious action-adventure survival game Palworld already has a Pokemon mod – much to the chagrin of Pokemon fans and former Nintendo executives. Read on to learn more.
YouTuber Teases Upcoming Pokemon Mod for Palworld
In a stroke of good timing that can rival Infestation: Origin’s launch mere hours after Disney’s copyright ended, YouTuber ToastedShoes just announced an upcoming Pokemon modpack for Pocketpair’s contentious action-adventure game, Palworld.
First teased on his official Twitter (X) account, ToastedShoes shared snippets of the modpack with a video of him playing as Ash Ketchum and setting several Pals – now modeled to look like their closest-looking Pokemon counterparts – to work around the world. This tweet exploded in engagement, surpassing 8 million views in less than 24 hours.
Palworld’s Pokemon Mod Remains Divisive Among Fans
Comments on the tweet ranged from genuine surprise and delight to concern for the creator’s platform considering Nintendo’s perceived ruthlessness with their intellectual properties. User @Grrted even commented, “This video is going to get copyrighted so hard I'm scared to even reply to it”.
This divisive set of comments to the announcement mirrors much of the discourse kick-started by Palworld’s contentious entrance to the gaming scene – more on that later. For now, ToastedShoes seems unconcerned about the buzz surrounding his announcement; after all, this is hardly his first foray with modding licensed characters into games, evidenced by his “Pixar vs. Dreamworks” series where he modded characters from those properties into Mortal Kombat 1.
Excited and concerned fans alike wait for the video to come out on his channel with bated breath. If his track record is to be any indication, ToastedShoes should be fine despite the uproar about Palworld’s creature designs.
Former Pokemon Executive Slams Palworld as “Ripoff”
Speaking of Nintendo’s reaction to Palworld’s creature designs, one of its former executives has recently spoken about the topic. Don McGowan, Nintendo’s former chief legal officer, had the following to say regarding Palworld’s allegedly plagiarized designs: “This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokémon. I’m just surprised it got this far.”
Considering his 12-year tenure with the game company, his words hold some water, although he’s hardly the only person to speak up about Palworld’s designs. As confirmed by Bloomberg reporter Takashi Mochizuki, Nintendo is aware of Palworld’s existence, though it won’t be commenting on “individual cases”.
This doesn’t exactly indicate what Nintendo’s intended reaction to Palworld will be in the future, though, going by what most of the reactions to ToastedShoes’ announcement said, there might be a storm coming.
Source:
Pokémon’s former legal boss says Palworld looks like ‘ripoff nonsense’
Palworld already has a Pokémon mod
Yes, Nintendo Is Aware Of Palworld's Existence
