Palworld Doesn’t Like Being Called “Pokemon With Guns”

It can be very hard to shake a first impression. This is true for people, but it can also be true for video games. Once gaming fans have latched on to a specific label for a game, it’s pretty hard to shake it. This has very much been the case for Palworld, which has been labeled by gamers and media as “Pokemon with guns” ever since it was first revealed to the public. This description has gotten the game both positive and negative attention over the last few years, and it seems developer Pocketpair isn’t too fond of it.

Pocketpair communications director and publishing manager John “Bucky” Buckley spoke at Game Developers Conference last month. During that speech, Buckley offered lots of behind the scenes insights into Palworld and the future plans of Pocketpair. As revealed by IGN, Buckley also touched on how this perception of “Pokemon with guns” was first shared by gaming journalists, and continues to persist years later.

“We revealed the game to the world in June of 2021, so quite a few years ago. We posted a trailer at what’s called Indie Live Expo, which is an indie gaming event in Japan. We showed this off to the Japanese audience initially, we had a really, really good reception. But very quickly, Western media got eyes on this little game, and we were very quickly branded, as early as 2021, as a ‘certain franchise’ plus guns. This would be something that has stuck with us to this very day, despite our best efforts to shake that off,” said Buckley.

Following those comments, Buckley elaborated a bit to IGN, noting that the game’s original pitch was closer to ARK: Survival Evolved. That game also has guns in it, and has players taming dinosaurs. Buckley said that the goal was to build on that, but to make each creature “like its own very special thing.” From that perspective, it’s easy to see how Palworld might have evolved more from ARK than Pokemon. While Pocketpair has gotten used to the comparison (and has leaned into it in certain ways), Buckley does hope that players will judge the game on its own merits, rather than on its similarities to Pokemon.

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Though Buckley seemed surprised by the “Pokemon with guns” label, it’s easy to see why the game swiftly earned that reputation. Outside of the gameplay itself, there are a lot of designs that clearly seem inspired by the Pokemon franchise, and the game has been accused of treading on the trademarks of Nintendo and The Pokemon Company. A joint lawsuit was filed over those similarities, and we’ve already seen some adjustments to Palworld seemingly as a result. Given everything that has happened, it seems pretty unlikely that the “Pokemon with guns” label will be getting shed anytime soon!

Do you still refer to Palworld as “Pokemon with guns?” Should gamers move away from that comparison? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!