AI-generated game suspected of plagiarizing Pokémon! "Palu the Phantom" on Steam sold 2 million units, is Nintendo going to sue?
"Palworld" (Palworld), published and produced by Pocketpair, became a hit in the gaming world after it launched early access on January 19. Incredibly, within 24 hours of its release, the sales of this game exceeded 2 million units. On the Steam platform, the number of people online at the same time exceeded the 1.29 million mark, making it the "best-selling game" and " Double crown for "Most Played".
What is the content of "Phantom Parlu" game?
"Palworld" is a game based on cute style and open world survival gameplay. This game combines "Pokémon" style capture gameplay with survival and construction elements. Players in this world Interact with the elf "Palu" and enjoy various fun games such as fighting, building, and cultivating by squeezing and enslaving these cute creatures.
In the world of "Eidolon Parlu", each Parlu has unique abilities and characteristics, and can be transformed into different forms according to the needs of the player. Whether used as a weapon in the heat of battle, as a mount to navigate the vast game world, or even as a farming tool during construction and exploration, the pallu can be of great help.
Exciting like Pokémon, using generative AI to spark heated discussions
However, this super popular game is currently in the middle of a controversy over originality and plagiarism. Players on social media have raised doubts about "Pokémon Pallu", believing that its character design is significantly influenced by "Pokémon". "The influence of "Pokémon", some users even cited the similarities between the Paloo in "Pokémon Pallu" and questioned whether it was plagiarism.
Furthermore, the developer Pocketpair has also been dug up by netizens for its dark history of using generative AI tools to create content in the past. In particular, an artist named Zaytri pointed out on social platforms that Pocketpair had previously developed "AI: Art Imposter", a game with AI image generation as its core mechanism.
In addition, Pocketpair CEO Mizobe expressed his appreciation for the potential of AI image generators in content creation in historical tweets on social media, which further sparked controversy about the creative source of "Eidolon Parlu".
The design team is actually all “amateurs”
Not only that, this game has really caused a debate among Pokémon fans. Some fans called on everyone not to buy this game, saying, "If players buy this game... they are doing a disservice to Nintendo and GAME FREAK (Pokémon game developer). ), the content of the game is suspected of animal cruelty.
However, the above remarks soon aroused refutation. There are also Pokémon fans who believe that the interactivity of this game is basically a "dream come true". There is no doubt that the game content is fun. In response to the accusation of animal cruelty, some players also strongly questioned "Whether playing a gun game means you are suspected of murder", believing that this is just a game, and there is no need to over-explain or forcefully label it.
But, you know what? This game was not produced by a professional game team. One of the team members even used to work in a convenience store. He was invited to work by the president simply because he was a senior military fan. President Takuro Mizobe looked back on the past development process and admitted that the Pocketpair team had experienced many unnecessary failures. Compared with industry experts, they lack professional knowledge, and many seemingly basic things are completely new challenges for them. They are a group of "laymen" from different fields, but because of this freshness and spirit of exploration, they developed the game "Phantom Beast Parlu", which also made the outside world's perception even more confusing.
