After coming under scrutiny by Pokemon fans, the director of Palworld has spoken out against “slanderous comments”.
CEO of developer Pocketpair and director of Palworld Takuro Mizobe posted on X (formerly Twitter) about accusations of plagiarism and asset-flipping that have been levelled against the company (translation provided by VGC).
“We are currently receiving abusive and defamatory comments against our artists, in addition to tweets that appear to be death threats. While we have received various opinions about Palworld, it is important to note that the supervision of all materials related to Palworld is conducted by a team, including myself,” the developer posted on the social media platform.
“I bear the responsibility for the produced materials. I would appreciate it if these comments towards artists involved in Palworld would cease”.
Despite controversy over similarities between Pokemon and Palworld, the game has sold over five million copies since it launched three days ago in early access. The title also holds the record for the fifth highest concurrent Steam players ever, sitting behind Dota 2, Lost Ark, Counter-Strike 2, and PUBG: Battlegrounds, but having a higher amount of concurrent players than Elden Ring, New World, Hogwarts Legacy, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Meanwhile, developers Pocketpair revealed during a recent Q&A that crossplay is a priority, and that the team is working to “make this a possibility as soon as possible”. The company has also warned of a game-breaking bug that can cause players in the game to become permanently weaker and to avoid using the item that causes the bug until a fix can be released.
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