Don McGowan, who served as the Chief Legal Officer of the Pokémon Company for nearly 12 years, shared his thoughts on the controversy surrounding Palworld.
Addressing allegations of design plagiarism by its developer, Pocketpair, he commented, “This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokémon. I’m just surprised it got this far.”
Palworld, described as an “action-adventure survival game,” involves battling and capturing creatures known as Pals for base building, traversal, and combat.
Despite its distinct tone, the game’s monster designs sparked comparisons to Pokémon, earning it the internet nickname “Pokémon with guns” upon its reveal last summer.
Following its highly successful launch on PC and Xbox last week, an anonymous X account surfaced online, asserting evidence of more than design inspiration—actual plagiarism of assets from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
On Monday, Takuro Mizobe, the director of Palworld and CEO of Pocketpair, issued a response to the plagiarism allegations. Although he acknowledged the influence of Pokémon, he emphasized that the game’s artists had faced online abuse and urged an end to such behavior.
“We are currently receiving abusive and defamatory comments against our artists, in addition to tweets that appear to be death threats,” he wrote on X, translated by VGC.
“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.
I bear the responsibility for the produced materials. I would appreciate it if these comments towards artists involved in Palworld would cease.”
