Palworld

[Mister Jack]

 

This game is huge now and it's only going to get bigger, so it was about time it got a thread.

Edited February 7, 2024 by Mister Jack

[MetalCaveman]

 

The amount of attention to detail in a game like this is insane lol, and then there's the backwards rocket launcher.

 

I mentioned this in the Games You Beat thread, but one of the biggest accomplishments of this game is the creature design, derivative/rip-off call it whatever, I loved them, way better than most other creature collecting games.

[Mister Jack]

I remember reading that they got a Japanese firearms enthusiast to model the guns for them for no reason other than "Americans like to shoot things." They weren't wrong.

[Thursday Next]

See, I could be wrong, but I don't think Palworld is "only going to get bigger"... I think that it will go the same way as Battlebit. A huge amount of UA at the start fueled by some streamers and general mainstream hype around the whole "lol, pokemon + guns" bit, but I think it's going to see a rapid drop off, especially given two factors:

 

1. It's a tiny dev team. They aren't going to be able to create a content pipeline to keep the game feeling fresh and so will lose players quickly;

2. They are going to have to waste a lot of resources fighting Nintendo precisely because the leant into the comparisons with Pokemon which means they are even less likely to be able to keep the content updated, and they won't be able to spend on further UA bringing new players into the game.

[Mister Jack]

Nintendo ain't gonna do shit. They took down a Pokemon mod for this game literally overnight (and rightfully so because the creator was charging money for it). I see no logical reason the Nintendo ninjas would leave this game standing for 3+ years if they had any legal ground to stand on. The only way they'd have a case would be if the Palworld devs literally stole assets and reused them, and I would be rather shocked if they were that stupid. 

[MetalCaveman]

I can see 1 being somewhat true, the roadmap they released did state they would focus on bug fixes and other issues before adding more content, people who've already done what's there right now might drop the game entirely, don't know how long it'll take them, but devs did mention they would add more pals, PvP (somewhat concerning, a Sphere that can catch pals owned by other players is in the game right now, just not fully implemented yet), plus there's a thing in the story that's not yet accessible, maybe those big patches will renew interest(?).

 

It's going to be interesting to see how long they can keep this momentum going, iirc they're hiring new people (or so Google translate says lol).

 

2 Def feels like a "if it was to happen it would've already happened" kind of thing, like the Pokémon mod was nuked in less than a day iirc, meanwhile the announcement trailer is from two years ago, if Nintendo saw any reason to take down Palworld they would have done it long ago IMO.

[Thursday Next]

The Ninty president did say on the 9th Feb that "action would be taken", which is where I get 2 from.

 

Dunno the whys and wherefores but it might have been the case that this was (a) not a slam dunk infringement; and (b) wasn't considered a material issue to spend the time, Yen, and effort on dealing with. No point going for a 70% chance of success case, and suing for damages when nobody has heard of the game, and there's no money to claim even if you win. Now that they have a lot of cash coming in and are occupying a lot of headlines, many of which associate Pokemon with guns, Ninty may feel it has gone too far and is worth their time to tackle.

[Mister Jack]

 

This is what he said. "We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights." To me that reads as "We know, we know, stop emailing us about it."

[MetalCaveman]

 

First raid now available, also a ton of other stuff, most importantly (imo):

• An ore camp!! No more sacrificing a base slot to mine ore!
• The ability to allow/disallow certain work for base pals, this one is huge lol