This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss today’s statement from The Pokémon Company that confirms it will investigate Palworld for possible intellectual property infringement.
It’s an unprecedented move by Pokémon to publicly call out Palworld as a game worthy of inspection – after 25 years of rip-offs and clones that have been quietly nuked or ignored. But it also feels inevitable, due to Palworld’s enormous spike in interest – seen by its Steam success, and also the sizable controversy swirling around it. The game had simply become too big to ignore.
So, what happens next? On the one hand, you’d think The Pokémon Company would be keen to act if any evidence of infringement can be found – it has to protect its intellectual property, or risk even cheekier Pokémon-style games trying harder in future. On the other, this announcement only feeds the controversy wave Palworld is riding, and risks blowback on Pokémon if the genuinely popular Palworld is unceremoniously removed from millions of people’s Steam libraries. With me this week are Eurogamer’s Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy.
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