The open-world survival game Palworld has received a lot of success recently. In fact, it sold over 4 million copies worldwide and has surpassed other popular titles, such as Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2, in peak player count. However, despite its massive success, the developers have received numerous death threats, which is confirmed by none other than Pocketpair CEO, Takuro Mizobe.
Developed by AI?
Recently, Palworld developers were accused of using generative AI to create over 100 creatures found in the game. Those who have played the title recently can attest to how these creatures look almost the same as pocket monsters, aka Pokémon.
This accusation stemmed from tweets made by Mizobe himself back in 2021, where he said in a Buzzfeed quiz that he had used AI to make his own Pokémon. In 2022, Mizobe argued that the use of AI in game development is inevitable.
Speaking to Automaton, Mizobe vehemently denied these so-called "slanderous comments" and shared that the developers had received death threats over them.
While there is no definitive proof that Mizobe and his team actually used generative AI to make the "Pals" in Palworld, some people on X/Twitter said that Pocketpair may have copied and edited the 3D meshes from various Pokémon games to create them.
X/Twitter user byofrog claims that one of Palworld's Pals is a direct copy of Lycanroc from Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. "I feel like I probably should have highlighted the mesh on this one... Lycanroc's base color is really close to Blender's default material," they added.
Eric Covington, a former Game Designer at Blizzard, posted a series of tweets claiming that Pocketpair could not have created complex model meshes with almost identical proportions to certain Pokémon by accident. "To repeat that improbability throughout your roster... doesn't pass the sniff test," said Covington.
While it may seem like an attack on the people who have worked on Palworld's creature design, Covington later clarified that his previous statement was only meant as a "cautionary tale" for developers and artists.
Pokémon is currently tied to Nintendo - a very litigious company with a roster full of lawyers ready to swoop in without a moment's notice. If Nintendo ever catches even a whiff of any of its assets being used without prior consent, one can bet that the company will do something about it.
Read Also: Palworld, Enshrouded Make Simultaneous Debut on Steam
Domination Continues
Whether the "Pals" were created using generative AI or not, Palworld continues to dominate the charts, with over 830,000 players enjoying the open-world survival game at the time of writing.
The game that has "Pokémon with guns," as the community would put it, still continues to revel in its success.
What do you think? Did Pocketpair really utilize AI tools to develop the creatures in Palworld?
Related Article: Palworld is So Popular Right Now That the Game Suffers from Server Issues
