"Palworld is going to be the survival crafting game everyone always wanted" and "people will be shocked" at how big 1.0 is, says Pocketpair publishing lead
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/survival/palworld-is-going-to-be-the-survival-crafting-game-everyone-always-wanted-and-people-will-be-shocked-at-how-big-1-0-is-says-pocketpair-publishing-lead/Open linkView original on lemmy.world278
Comments99
Not really sure it's for me but I am just happy that it really annoys Nintendo
Out ofthe loop here. Why does Nintendo care?
Nintendo spent a load of money and resources in a protracted legal battle trying to get the project canned by suing them for everything they could think of. It ended in them forcing Palworld to remove the ball throwing mechanic, because apparently Pokemon has that copyrighted or something.
Patented, which is even dumber
And the gliding with monsters
Damn, didn't know that.
Using a monster as a glider too
They also tried to patent riding monsters as well, which is insane seeing that horseriding had been a thing for millenia
It kinda looks like the pikachu game
Pikachu Simulator World Cup 64™ ?
Detective Pikachu?
They plagiarized a bunch of Pokemon and used the publicity generated to bring attention to their game (which admittedly has nothing to do with Pokémon aside from the aforementioned similar-looking monsters).
If memory serves, the plagiarism allegations were doctored. Nintendo tried to find whatever they could sue them for, and it wasn't plagiarizing monster designs; it was for things like "riding a captured creature" and "catching creatures by throwing a ball at them". Some aspect of Japanese law allowed for them to make new patents after Palworld came out and then sue them for it retroactively.
I'm not talking about what went into court. Most pals are "legally distinct" monsters, but that's what brought the game to public awareness, what started the comparisons with Pokémon, and why Nintendo hated their guts. Monster collectors have existed outside of Pokémon for decades and still do, Nintendo only sued Palworld because they copy-pasted their monsters with a different color palette.
What brought the game to court compared to the other monster collectors is that this one made a shit-ton of money, and the other ones didn't, so Nintendo and The Pokemon Company were, for the first time, threatened.
They wouldn't feel threatened by Palworld if it wasn't for the legally distinct™ designs because, at its core, Palworld is a completely different game that only vaguely resembles Pokémon on a very superficial level (the monster themselves).
If it's legally not considered copy-pasting their monsters, why do you feel like you can assert that it is plagiarism? I suppose that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it, but I also think people have a right to call you out on it for saying it as if it's a fact when it is not actually a recognized fact. Plenty of people would dispute that, including myself, and certainly Pocketpair would, and evidence suggests the courts probably would've agreed with them hence it wasn't even worth pursuing legally.
You can dispute that Palworld didn't copy-paste Pokémon body parts and palette swap their designs to create their legally distinct clones, but I'd call that bullshit. People only side with PocketPair because they plagiarized Nintendo, which people (rightfully) hates. If it was done to anyone else, nobody would defend them. I can hate Nintendo and still posit that what PocketPair did was shitty and an insult to all the devs who actually take pride in their work and put effort in creating something original.
This entire medium is built on iteration. Basically every fantasy thing you ever played was basically a palette swap of Tolkien or someone who copied Tolkien before them. Original D&D had "hobbits" until they were changed into halflings. Palworld is also parody, which thrives on the similarity as it calls pals bastards for breaking out of their capture, or arms them with modern weaponry. Not only that, but "survival game with a riff on Pokemon" is creating something original.
Fuck off with this. If Palworld ripped off Pokemon, then Pokemon ripped off Dragon Quest
Quit licking corpo boots
Fuck off which this. Pokemon pulled the same shit when they copied Dragon Quest with the first games
Oh, wow. Dragon Quest's are way cuter.
Yeah, as someone who has been playing Pokemon since Pokemon Blue, I don't see much of a similarity in the monsters from Palworld, other than them having the same inspirations such as a sheep, a cat, an owl and so on. They are "legally distinct" in the same way that the shotgun in Halo is legally distinct from the shotgun in Doom
Coincidentally, those that look similar the most are not the simple animal-shaped ones.
Electabuzz, Lucario, Cinderace, Cobalion, Luxray, Aggron.
If you dont like that you should see the titan bars I got from Aldi.
Yeah I love Pokemon and everything, but this kind of Nintendo apologism is gross. They don't have a copyright on dog monster or derpy dragon. These are all based on animals and yokai, so obviously there will be similarities. But the idea that there was plagiarism/re-used assets was complete fabrication from the start. If you want to see an ACTUAL ripoff, watch the trailer for Palworld then watch the Pickmon trailer. I'm certain this game indeed plagiarized Mammorest at least, and the game design is identical.
Actually they're suing because of these alleged infringement of these weirdly general patents:
Don't forget that these patents (or modifications of existing patents) were made after Palworld released.
Nintendo and their lawyers are scumbags
Nintendo alleges that they plagiarized their assets.
The thing is, there was a solid argument to be made that some of the meshes for certain Pals were too similar to that of some Pokémon models to be a coincidence, but Nintendo didn't bring any of that up in the lawsuit. They opted to go for the much more flimsy "riding a character" and "summoning a character by throwing a ball/sphere".
And, somehow, fucking won. They forced Palworld to remove the ball throwing mechanic.
It's fucking stupid.
No, they haven't won a single patent case yet. And there's still ball throwing in the game, but only for captures. The summoning via ball throwing was removed so that Nintendo couldn't file an injuction against Pocketpair to stop their sales during the case.
If Pocketpair wins the court cases, they can undo the removals.
Oh gotcha. I thought I read the won the patent in Japan or something so that's why it was removed.
Good to hear they are still fighting it.
Honestly pokemon has kinda sucked for a long time now and they deserve the ass kicking they got from pal world. We don't need game freak anymore...they can't be bothered to make a good game.
If anyone plagiarized pokemon it would have been tem tem, but that was not a threat to Nintendo so they went after pal world because game freak got lazy with their game dev.
I thought GameFreak owned Pokemon.
They own a third of it, along with Nintendo and Creatures
I hope so. I played the game last year and everything felt a bit lackluster and janky. It's a pretty fun game, but I hope 1.0 adds that polish it needs.
I was planning on starting a new world once 1.0 drops and was worried how big this update will be. This gives me some confidence. I really like what they have done so far and can‘t wait to see how they‘ll wrap it up.
Same, I played a ton at launch but haven't kept up with any updates aside from the initial raids. All memes aside it's genuinely a solid game, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they've done with it.
Hey, I doubt it! Still totally on board to spite nintendo tho
Less tell more show.
There are loads of technical issues with Palworld that put me off from buying it.
Is it steam deck compatible? Like controls wise?
My kid plays it on the deck, he's 7. So, I guess it's fine.
Then I very well might to be able to tank it. Glad your kid did the research.
The true answer.
I don't know
Hey! Turns out I already have it through family share! I'll check back in however long it takes to download.
I'd like to be more enlightened.
About palword or the family share?
Both.
Palworld plays well on the steam deck. But I'm irl friends with a fairly popular twitch streamer who put me in his group. I have a ton of steam games from being an early adopter of humble bundle, I was pretty proud of my 666 game count. But I got a hundred some odd newer games from the share. And we can play online at the same time which is pretty dope.
That's impressive.
There's another game that mashed Pokémon and Palworld called Pickmon i think, still in early access but they are copying both games shamelessly.
There's Pokopia. An actual Nintendo made game that just came out. My BF got it recently, and it's basically Pokemon+Minecraft+Animal Crossing+Palworld's automation using the Pokemon.
It's super good and I want it now. 😳
One problem with that: it's actually made by Nintendo. Fuck Nintendo.
It's made by Game Freak and Omega Force, both not Nintendo.
It is published by Nintendo though (except for Japan)
It's just mostly just a reskin of Dragon Quest Builders. Pokopia is Builders 3.
They used an animal crossing menu UI. Removed the combat. Added pokemon. Exact same story and mechanics.
In a way, yes, but it's significantly better at what it kept from builders 2. DQB2 slows down to a crawl about 50 builds in, and can't manage a tenth of that active NPC amount in an area.
It's also designed to give you a lot more freedom. Instead of most story objectives being imposed blueprints and a tiny active building site, you're dropped into large areas with lots of broken architecture and empty wilderness spaces, and what you do with it is your decision.
How is that "in a way"? What you described is a normal video game iteration process, but also on new hardware (and probably an engine change). DQB2 and Pokopia were both done Omega Force (the folks who make all the Warrior games), with Takuto Edagawa as the director.
"In a way" because to me the game's focus is different enough that, even if they do have a lot of mechanics in common, it doesn't feel like "Builders 3" to me.
Like, you know, The Wonderful 101 is not Okami 2.
people seem to be addicted to playing , it must be doing something good.
yeah...fuck Nintendo.
Its hilarious how little they respect copyright, there's even Link BotW and Roadhog Overwatch in there too
Oh yeah i forgot they threw those in as well, but at least you don't capture Pickmons with balls you capture them with cards, it's an absolute troll party.
Uggh, I just took a look at this game. It's absolute slop. Nintendo had no legs for for their attempted suit, but PocketPair certainly does now. Well, maybe not, but I wish...
Oh, I thought these headlines were from the past and this was roasting Pocketpair for saying that
If they can give the environments a stronger, more "toon" art direction, and fix the player character's chopped looks, no one will be able to pull me off this game!!!
Pokemon meets Minecraft now?
It's even got a trading card game
Thought it was animal crossing
I was thinking about buying this game on a sale.
Can anybody tell me how the game compares to its first release? The game peaked at 2 million consecutive players, that's a lot!
I last played it a couple of months ago. It's significantly more fleshed out than the initial release, which seemed pretty empty and boring by comparison. Crafting isn't really my thing but they make it relatively easy and not as annoying as many other games. Overall it's worth checking out. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would
Abiotic factor does not have automation lol
I would absolutely love if they did add it though, doubt it since 1.0 came out though.
A big factor with Palworld is building up your automation with good base design and Pal management. You assign them to build, sew seeds, water, harvest, transport, mine, chop trees, manufacure items, power generators, etc. As you progress, the systems you maintain get more complicated but provide better services/items/convenience. Exploring is a lot of fun, with Pals you can ride, traversal mechanics like the hookshot, and gliding. Plus all the usual open world mechanics like enemy bases to clear, warp points to unlock, powerful world bosses hanging around, dungeons, and resources to seek out. I've sunk probably 200 hours in it with friends.
Just play Abiotic Factor.
Abiotic Factor is not a bad game, but holy shit is that such a different game.
Thats like if someone was craving chicken noodle soup and you said "just have chili".
I get what you’re saying, it is a different vibe. I just think Abiotic Factor is so well done that it kind of goes beyond a straight comparison. It’s like comparing instant ramen to a really well-made bowl from a restaurant. Same idea, but the experience is on a completely different level.
Its not even the same idea, completely different goals
Any updates on the legal side of things? Didn't Nintendo officially open up a lawsuit not too long ago?
Nintendo mostly lost. They did have to make some minor game updates, glider pals no longer appear when gliding, and you can't throw a captured pal's sphere on summon.
Palworld weren't forced to make those changes. They did it to avoid injunctions from stopping sales during the precedings.
Also, the majority of the cases are still ongoing. Both in the US and in Japan
Afaik Nintendo lost!
what is that a dinosaur
Relaxasaurus. He's just a chill guy.
well he's pissing me off right now