Palworld Is BREAKING The Gaming Industry

Palworld is a reckoning for an industry riddled with production issues.
Subscribe to the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast anywhere you get your podcasts!!
Spotify: open.spotify.c...
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple...
Podbay: podbay.fm/p/wh...
----------
For more awesome content, check out whatculture.com...
Find us on Twitter: / wculturegaming
Catch us on Facebook: / whatcultureg. .

[@Korraganitar]

I think a part of the issue that they aren't seeing is that the people determining trends are usually suits who read analytics as opposed to playing games. From the sound of it, these devs actually play games, and figured out something people would ACTUALLY enjoy.

[@aliquidgaming1068]

The devs said they added guns cause to have a global appeal they thought well Americans like to shoot things so we need to have guns He also said they didn't have a creative vision, he and the team just want to make a game people have fun playing Btw that's almost quote for quote

[@aliquidgaming1068]

Btw I love the devs. They are just so based. Feel like genuine people who just want to play and make games and throw around ideas and see if they can make it a mechanic and if it works they run with it.

[@jaeusa160]

Imagine devs who actually play their own games! This is true of FF14 overtaking WoW, for example. Yoshi P had his players actually play older parts of WoW when fixing FF14 to relaunch it. He himself is one of the highest parsing players in the world in FF14. Another one that's cool is one of the guys from Phasmophobia. He regularly plays and streams other games, and even Phasmo, with one of the biggest streamers of Phasmo. They've put who knows how many hours rolling over Lethal Company lately. THOSE are the people who make good games. Not the people who pitched Balder's Knot 3's bestiality.

[@bigmekboy175]

You mean that most people don't like spending 5+ hours grinding to get the same gun you already have but this one is .001% better? Next you're gping to tell me thar gamers want complete games without almost necessary micotransactions and pay to win mechanics!? That's ridiculous!

[@MrGBH]

Problem is, lots of execs are going to see this and think "People like AI generated content"

[@andyspincat2968]

The game has record high concurrent player numbers. Edit: Also, the accusation that Palworld has stolen assets is unfounded. The video that the lawyers were commenting on was deliberately edited to make it look closer than it was, and even then, it was quickly debunked as they weren't proportionally the same. The creator of the video directly admitted that they were doing this because they were upset that Palworld "celebrates animal cruelty", not because they found any evidence of actual asset theft.

[@PandaKnightsFightingDragons]

I think something about Palworld that's left out of a lot of these conversations it's that it's a rare example of a game that delivers on something that fans have wanted for years but been denied.

[@reapersasmr5483]

They made it fun , AAA thinks money spent on a game makes it fun

[@zacziggarot]

Because they designed the game to follow trends. They made a game that they thought that people wanted to play rather than the game that they wanted people to want to play. It's like all those mobile game ads where you wonder why they bother making such a weird ad when the game is a variation of candy crush instead of just making the interesting looking game

[@jalhankaster]

This. Lemme tell you I haven't played this game but I dreamed of this game since the og gameboy

[@POPToppins]

Who has wanted a fortnite pokemon sons of the forest Mashup? That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard. The game sucks to btw.

[@POPToppins]

​@@jalhankasterdumb thing to dream of

[@mygrains5013]

Palworld devs and Larian just absolutely embarrassing the triple AAA market, fucking love this, lol

[@DaRip74]

And you wonder why AAA is starting to become a loss and bringing down their companies.

[@AronHallan]

@@DaRip74 AAA needs more virtual signaling and self inserted devs pushing their twitter cesspool propaganda in the games, that sure will sell like hot cakes /s.

[@marshallbeck9101]

@@DaRip74good triple A studios are overrated anyway

[@Om16767]

the AAAAAAAAA market?

[@triadwarfare]

​@@AronHallannothing wrong with virtue signalling if it's executed properly.

[@robdaniels8949]

Big game companies - “they are having fun?? What is this fun you speak of”

[@Monique-iz8lp]

I'm pretty sure AI could generate a better Pokemon game than Gamefreak at this point.

[@Dtr146]

It already has

[@Fishman60001]

Not😊

[@tat381]

​@@Fishman60001already can

[@sirachman]

Any teenage pokemon fan could lead gamefreak better than they have over the past 30 years.

[@phatty1709]

Is that really saying much? Fan mods of leaf green are better than the garbage they put out last year

[@doublecommenter5161]

Palworld is the Godzilla Minus One of gaming right now.

[@aimeerobidoux7635]

As someone who's sunk 15 hours into Palworld so far, the big appeal for me is that it's an actually good open world Pokemon-like game, and PC-only players who hate that Nintendo has made their games exclusive to their platform have been hungering for a game like this.

[@xiongjacob2739]

It is true. I am glad Palworld and Pocketpair saw this gap and are attempting to fill the gap. Who knows, man, if pokemon keeps missing up. I am afraid Pal World may as well take the crown.

[@POPToppins]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂​@@xiongjacob2739

[@POPToppins]

​@@xiongjacob2739not even close kid

[@POPToppins]

Yea to bad the game is ass

[@aimeerobidoux7635]

To each their own. Interesting that you assume I’m a child.

[@kathycoleman4648]

My bf bought it, tried it, and then bought me a copy too. We are absolutely loving it. Exploring the world, building our base, catching pals, discovering how they can help us at the base or in combat. There's so much to dig into and to be excited about.

[@Boss_Fight_Index_muki]

/PalWorld really shows the power of 'economies of scale'. That you don't have to price games at $70; you can still make a truckload of money by getting a game into as many consoles/pc as possible with a consumer friendly price/

[@ThisPandaWasHere]

It's at the early release price. Once it officially launches, it'll likely be $70

[@AronHallan]

@@ThisPandaWasHereNaah the game will be in "Early Access" for a very long time like those games usually are, never seen one climbing to the AAA prices like 70$

[@xiongjacob2739]

I'd say max price is around 30 to 40. It's huge for an EA game.

[@Zythroxes]

​@@AronHallanwhy would they want to be 70$ anyway? Clearly 30 is a fit price for it and I see it staying that way thankfully for anyone who hasn't gotten the chance to try it

[@drewdemorotski9147]

It doesn’t feel like Wallet Drain Simulator as Service, which makes it feel better than the AAA gaming space.

[@phoenixthehound4928]

Trends, no trends, i think at the end of the day we just want a FUN GAME. As long as you give us that most people don't really care where the ideas or thought process came from.

[@POPToppins]

This is literally trends

[@coorsy]

The "its plagiarism" argument is so dumb because they show lamball and mareep and act as if pokemon owns the idea of sheep

[@mikestrauss8613]

Sheep didn't exist until 1999.

[@themyagi]

If you've ever watched the 2022 movie "the menu", and know what the ending has to offer, then this is what gaming is in at this point. People don't care about detail, or a message, or how much you spend on the development. People just want a good simple burger.

[@031Productions]

Fantastic comparison!

[@sirfuecksalot90]

While I thoroughly enjoy massive budget games like Spiderman and God of War--I miss the days when video games were GAMES first and foremost. There is room in the world for both to be successful though, so I hope the industry learns from the Palworld success and opens their minds to what can make a game successful these days.

[@Nathan-oo2ik]

Spider-Man and god of war are gameplay heavy ass games, so maybe those are poor examples for your point.

[@sirfuecksalot90]

@@Nathan-oo2ik It isn't helped by the fact that I wrote that about 5 minutes before starting work. My bad for not being articulate; what I meant is that the massive open world-y games are great, but I wish that wasn't the only priority for most AAA studios. Sometimes making a game that is simple fun may have more bang for your buck if done well. There are indie studios for that I suppose though.

[@aliquidgaming1068]

I feel like we are getting back to that Prince of Persia the Lost crown is amazing. PalWorld is fun. Baldurs Gate 3. Alan wake 2. AC mirage was a step forward or in the right direction is a better choice of words. I think games are just getting fun again. Also lethal company. Among us. Hades. And so many others. Hell revolver digital is all about making games and making them fun first. I do feel like we are in an era where more options from indie, as to AAA are available that we are in a platinum era of gaming

[@TunaminV1]

@@aliquidgaming1068needless to say, we’re finally leaving the dark ages of gaming

[@thetrashcanman7537]

@@Nathan-oo2ikcutscene heavy and one flopped

[@ThatSeshGuy]

Big game devs need to learn that gamers don’t care about good quality games if they’re not fun.

[@Alias_Q]

Imagine that, making a game, that is exactly that, a Game first and foremost would sell well. Not chasing after industry trends and buzzwords, but making something creative and fun for the sake of being fun would be successful.

[@themangastand8475]

It's definitely chasing trends lol. The CEO even said so. However it's fun

[@POPToppins]

It's literally chasing trends the game tf lol

[@darrinsmith272]

What they dont say about palworld is that in the game you can catch the npc humans and make them work for you and use them to battle

[@8523wsxc]

"cool"

[@CorruptionAura]

Even better there is a group that is literally a spoof of PETA and catching and using them as palslaves

[@Caithness19]

Does that include the first boss lady you encounter?

[@Relzrin]

​@Caithness19 well you can catch the Tower Bosses, but it's through a glitch.

[@molybdaen11]

Well you can. You can even pet them. But they have no active abilitys and are generally weaker.

[@Fuzzy_Yordle]

There's one thing that made Palworld so successful. They've given us the game we've wanted - even begging for - from Gamefreak for over a decade that they have absolutely refused to make for no reason other than their obstinance. Gamefreak could've made this game 12 years ago. They didn't, they haven't, and they likely won't. It's Gamefreak's loss.

[@ScytheNoire]

I saw the videos claiming the wire meshes are the same, and you can clearly see that they are not the same. There are differences between them. It's like someone tried to remake it, but it's definitely not a 1-to-1 copy.

[@theabsurdityseries5597]

They're close enough to be a very obvious trace at minimum. If you rip a model and hit "remesh", you arguably still stole the model.

[@downskitty]

doesn't matter if it's not the same exact asset, it's not the same asset and "close enough" only matters in hand grenades and horseshoes

[@--_--IMP--_--]

​@@downskittyI really hope you aren't anyone's lawyer. The simple fact is that it doesn't have to be an exact copy. "Close enough" actually is good enough for the lawyers to get involved, although it doesn't always happen. If it is close enough to potentially cause confusion or misidentification, it is definitely close enough for the lawyers to get involved. There have been lawsuits that back that up. These corporations can be insanely litigious, their ridiculously high-paid lawyers unquestionably know the laws far better than you and I, and they have more than enough money to ruin small businesses by dragging things out in court for extended periods. That said, a lot depends on the IP holders, themselves. Corporations like Disney and Nintendo and even Chik-Fil-A are notoriously aggressive when it comes to defending their IPs, while other companies are known to be a little more amicable about things. I worked (mostly small) comic conventions for several years and the Nintendo reps were still at just about every show, going through vendor booths to make sure no unlicensed/unofficial merch was being sold at all. Over that time, many vendors (including us) were given cease and desist letters on the spot and not allowed to sell any of the 'questionable' merchandise. They always had a couple of convention reps with them as they did their rounds who made sure people understood and stopped selling the items in question or they would be told to pack up and then get escorted off the property with no refund and a future ban. We had vinyl decals and silhouette art prints and several other items like that that were sort of fairly close to the original logos/images, but definitely not exact copies, and the Nintendo reps consistently wouldn't allow us to sell them (to the point where we stopped making/selling them altogether because the official license fee is way too cost prohibitive for a small business like ours and fighting a losing battle wasn't worth the effort), while we sold items of things like AC and Sailor Moon and GoT and other movies/shows/games that were closer to the originals and we didn't really get any real grief from any of those companies. We were a very small vendor though, so we weren't selling a ton of any one particular item, and that probably helped us avoid some scrutiny. Sometimes, it is good to be the little guy. In my own experience, vendors/artists in bigger booths generally get scrutinized/dinged much more than those in small booths, while everyone gets scrutinized by corporations like Nintendo.

[@OGFacelessKing]

I mean... Pokémon has created so many creatures even THEY have problems not making them look similar to each other

[@POPToppins]

​@@downskittyso we should just be allowed to steal whatever as long as it's close enough by your logic? What a dumbass.

[@logandaley1544]

I think a part of how Palworld does so well is the combination of familiar ideas make a unique experience. If someone makes a game that cobbles a bunch of different game trends and it just feels like a cheep copy of the games that built those trends it feels hollow. If it has a fun spin on it that livens it up a lot.

[@gam3rtim352]

Graphics and story aren’t mandatory. If it isn’t fun then it won’t last long.

[@matthew-dq8vk]

Funner then anything gamefreak has done

[@OversoulGaming]

Lack of narrative isn't fun for me

[@erecto_patronum]

Agreed, graphics do not dictate whether a game is good or not. Just look at 90% of N64 games. Golden Eye 007, DK 64, Banjo & Kazooie / Banjo-Tooie, Pokemon Stadium 1 & 2, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mario Kart 64.... all those games are truly fun to play

[@xiongjacob2739]

​@OversoulGaming in games like palworld, you make your own narrative. Imagination and the games ability to engage in your imagination and perceptions that's what makes it stand out. Games use to be like this and now will I am sure the return of games engaging its players will return.

[@dragonandavatarfan8865]

​@@OversoulGaming Watch a movie or read a book then. You shouldn't play games solely for story

[@DeltaStrike]

The twitter account that made the allegations that Palworld stole assets admitted later on to having manipulated the meshes to make their claims fit better. They even tried to play it off as if they were just joking around and that tweet wasn't supposed to have been taken seriously. They then doubled back and tried to say that the reason they manipulated the meshes to look more similar than they actually are is because Palworld supposedly promotes animal cruelty. This makes the allegations heavily suspect especially given the recentness of the twitter accounts creation too. All in all, there is probably nothing there either.

[@anthonynicholson5193]

Everyone is acting like this game came out of nowhere. It has been in the top 20 most wishlisted games on Steam since October last year.

[@TheBrokensaintvxvx]

Im.juet saying, AAA devs already use AI to make games, either through the use of procedural generation or other parts of dev. This game isn't special in that regard

[@raidengoodman8754]

Well there’s different levels to AI when discussing it

[@Go.DGanka69420]

obv bro what do you think starfield devs made 1000 planets, nah the main citys are the only ones they made , all the planets are procedurally generated

[@mpennett]

We also appreciate a good cheap game. Not everything can be $70+ I'd rather pay $25 for a "game that doesn't suck and is fun" then blow $70 on a triple A game that just takes time to finish

[@POPToppins]

​@succubusYTGod of War and Horizon make this look like the ass it is weeb

[@MrKingkz]

So true i got rid of my PS cuz the AAA games suck dick completely broken crap that cost way too much i have gone back to my laptop and emulators old games are way better @succubusYT

[@jaeusa160]

It pisses off people I despise, which is a win. Additionally, even if I get "scammed" and it turns into ghostware somehow... I put $25 on this. I'm very much getting at least $25 of fun and content out of this. I've paid more and gotten less from games, especially in modern years.

[@POPToppins]

Keep telling yourself that

[@16BitKaiju]

I'm enjoying PalWorld more than the last 15 years of Pokemon games. It's proof you can accomplish more with less. Look at Godzilla Minus One earning vs the Monsterverse ones. Big budget != Success

[@craigauclair4026]

Even I'm enjoying it, and never had an interest in Pokemon. 😅

[@POPToppins]

​@@craigauclair4026no one cares

[@iconicbonds1310]

Sometimes i want to play a amazingly detailed game with a good story, and sometimes u jusrlt want to play a fun game

[@Stratelier]

Analogy: Back in the 1970s when _Star Wars_ first released, a few months later a small studio released a short film parody (on a budget of basically zero) which raked in about a million dollars, making it _technically_ one of the most profitable films of all time.

[@Meyoni]

Hardware wars

[@kami_in_the_skye]

The general consensus seems to be that this is actually pretty decent, so it might end up having some legs. But the immediate success is pretty much entirely down to the incredibly memetic concept and absolutely bonkers trailers. For better or worse, if you say "Pokemon with guns" (even if it's really Ark with Pokemon), *everyone* is gonna instantly take notice. That it seems to be coming together fairly competently is just a pleasant surprise.

[@marshallbeck9101]

Yes but if it sucked everyone would know in 5 minutes, the game blew up because it’s fun very simple

[@DerpyNoodIe]

@@marshallbeck9101 Agreed! I been playing it nonstop since I got the game and when playing with other people, it adds a whole other level. Palworld is very addicting and as long as they release more content for it. This game will last for a long time.

[@killaknight12]

Yeah I also was kinda interested at the premise of open world Pokemon with guns, but I'm SO done with open end early access survival games, so when I saw ppl play it I was like "WHAT IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT??? That's not Pokemon, thats Ark with monsters that happen to look like Pokemon instead of dinosaurs!" Don't get me wrong, I like it when the Pokemon formula finally get's mixed up, but this has nothing to do with the core concept that I'm looking for when I hear Pokemon.

[@POPToppins]

​@@marshallbeck9101It sucks bro you people can keep lying to yourselves but it's horrible

[@POPToppins]

​@@DerpyNoodIenope😂

[@redinfernal_]

Its just another addition to the ever growing list of games or genres that have existed for years, before being remade by another company, given a coat of paint and they sell millions. Vampire Survivors is a great example. Its a carbon copy of a gane called Magic Survival which came out a year prior, but Vampire Survivors was one of the highest selling ganes of its year. Or Crush the Castle and Angry Birds. Palworld is great and, if anything, i hope it gives Nintendo a kick in the ass to actually do something new with the Pokemon IP

[@attackdoughnut]

It's funny how things play out sometimes, as I first heard about Palworld, I was certain that Gamefreak would do everything possible to nuke this from orbit before it would have been even released lol

[@ginoaneumiller2733]

They've been trying and failing hard. Thats why their PR team is doing all they can now to drag the creators through the mud

[@Zythroxes]

The thing is they can't, palworld is unable to be copyrighted by them hence why Nintendo hasn't sued. Nintendo is the first to sue copyright as we all know lol it sure would've been sad if it had gotten took down the first day

[@POPToppins]

​@@ginoaneumiller2733to bad they still make actual original content

[@hashira141]

I think the whole sensationalism with this game is that it blows actual Pokemon out of the water in terms of graphics gameplay and just basic detail Pokemon has been getting by with the bare minimum (except arceus legends) and I think people are just digging a Pokemon clone that is as polished as this

[@POPToppins]

First of all this is a ark clone not a pokemon clone secondly this is gay and you are to for liking it

[@irick00]

Whats interesting is how many have not played it yet or bought it. Those numbers would be amazing if they continue. I for one have not yet...but am curious to try it soo yeah ill be part of that statistic soon 😅

[@The_Keh27]

In addition, as there is no exclusivity deal (or so I've read), IF it makes its way to PS5, and Switch (if Nintendo isn't too sour about the similarities to some of their exclusives), then the numbers will get even bigger. I'm on PS5 and in all honesty, it looks enjoyable to me.

[@dark14life]

I haven't bought it yet because my backlog is big enough as it is. In a year or two when I'm ready to take on a new game, it'll be 15-20 bucks. Maybe cheaper.

[@chillywillyfin]

@@The_Keh27it’s on gamepass for pc and xbox

[@aliquidgaming1068]

If you can get Gamepass try it off that I am honestly considering buying it after it's off Gamepass

[@mdnp-grid487]

​@@dark14lifeits early access though and a LOT of early access games that sell well up their pricing and stay away from more than 25% discounts.

[@olith]

It doesn't surprise me that it has blown up. People love surival games where they have a lot of autonomy and they released at a time when lots of young people got new PCs and laptops (Christmas), it is cheap and everyone in Games Journalism/Streaming cover everything and promote anything like never before. Keep in mind tens of millions of new gamers will start PC gaming this year. By using all these themes they appeal to many users rather than having this really tight vision and pushing their own IP. So pleased for them, but yeah it'll be interesting how it plays out because I remember this hype post-Cyberpunk's release with Valheim which did similar numbers in a slightly longer time adn then has dropped off massively.

[@Hytension]

Well naturally, it's game, it had a window, and it crushed that window. Then in the future a new window will open.

[@Kaezlo]

Games are supposed to be fun. This game is legit fun. Sometimes "Art" can be just fun.

[@OmegaZX-kd8sm]

More than stiched randomly together is more like they did a good job looking at stuff people want, and managed to piece them together nicely enough I hope the game gets a pretty nice modding community cuz there is potential for people to make it even bigger Also, to upload a game in steam, the AI stuff is prohibited as far as i remember (or you need to disclose if it was used) the wire mesh stuff it can be a case of using already made ones

[@Lagrangeify]

They've recently changed policy, not prohibited but it has to be disclosed up front.

[@demetriusnp49]

I only wish for Palworld to have a clearer vision out of the gates, in regard to originality. Gameplay wise the majority of it is Ark, not Pokemon. But everything else surrounding it clashes style so easily, even if the designs weren’t closely Pokemon related. Sure, I don’t mind having a fun game and the game should be fun. But I feel they should’ve done a better job selling the originality better. It’s like you got a brand new puzzle with different pieces, but the image is similar to the last one you’ve built.

[@OneMxnbrxnd]

If they are similar you frame them and put them on the same wall. There's a bazillion metriodvania games and guess what people still buy them because that gameplay loop is fun. This isn't rocket science Wolfenstein was good so they made Doom, Doom was good so they made Quake, so on and so on. The average gamer knows what they want and sometimes I just want a more fun Pokémon game that can mix in the cool elements of Ark and that ends up being a Good Game.

[@somalicious3569]

Just because they didn't have a vision out the gate doesn't mean one won't develop over time. They have a great jumping off point, all they need to do is look at what's working and what's not and develop from there.

[@Xiatter]

Original doesn't automatically mean fun, unoriginal doesn't automatically mean bad.

[@Zythroxes]

Shoot I mean the vision seems to me like catching pokemon and min maxing your base with them and paying close attention to the traits, but they are looking to add pvp I heard and that'll be great for it I believe. But really the monster hunting/taming is already so incredible for it

[@POPToppins]

​@@OneMxnbrxndThis isn't pokemon

[@squigssquigley8523]

We should all remember Flappy Bird which was a crazy sensation. Then we got the knock offs. Palworld is a blending of genres, and they did it in a great way.

[@michaelcitrino5339]

The biggest downfall of the gaming industry is the chase for better graphics. All the big studios try to make their games as visually stunning as possible. The tradeoff is the time spent on making it look pretty is time lost on getting good gameplay, or a better story, or other mechanical options. This game is a good example of gameplay > graphics, it was fairly cheap to produce from the sound of it and is currently being enjoyed by so many people. I do think this will be a lightning-in-a-bottle scenario, we will get it for a year or two before servers end up going down with possible private servers keeping the game floating for a while.

[@HybridConcience]

The thing that makes this game so good is the gameplay loop its satisfying.

[@asdf30111]

Every one that actually got the game that I know are having a lot of fun with the game. Even if this is a one off game, I don't think that a point against it rather then the gamers don't need more copies of a game they already have. What I don't think is one off is if you make the game fun for a wide audience, it does not have to be super new to have people want to play just new enough to feel I am getting something new buying your game vs what I already own.

[@POPToppins]

It's fun for like 5 minutes

[@kevinsskim]

What's next after Palworld? A Mario Kaiju game, of course.

[@horndogfred5246]

What's interesting to me is that games like suicide squad that suck massively, cost a huge amount of money, and fail aren't hated, just ignored. Meanwhile palworld doesn't suck at all and wasn't expensive in comparison but is hated by the stupid part of the internet.

[@EinsamPibroch278]

The Game looks good, and has exactly what gameplay the people have been asking for and have provably paid for from their purchase history and hours-played records. All future AAA Games need to follow the PalWorld Ethic EXACTLY.

[@sugarperez6933]

This is very aspiring as someone who only dreamed of making games. I have a few ideas i am going to start now 💪

[@BreezyDefrag]

Love the vid. I just picked up Palworld recently and only had a bit of a romp in it. Plan to play more later as it does play on my Nostalgia brain. After all Nintendo really isn't expanding too much on their own Pokemon IP and often when they do they REALLY miss their mark at least in regards to me and my perspective. I just want to ask on the larger scale of youtube content and anyone can chime in about it real quick. But I have been noticing a lot of shows just kind of end... like no real closing statement or anything it just cuts at the end of the vid and that's that... And it isn't just on this channel either, there are a few, Like Draw with Jazza, to name another I periodically watch. It just seems vids are kind of just being cut at the end. So I'm just wondering if that is a new trend or is there something wrong with my playback stuff... Sorry to post this here. I'm just curious.

[@rossbalch]

I've noticed the jarring video ends too. I think it's the latest algorithm baiting trend.

[@BreezyDefrag]

@@rossbalch Ok, Good to know I'm not the only one. Thanks so much for the incite. ^^ Appreciate it.

[@codycomer4623]

I think that they just smartly grabbed a space where there was a demand right now. Pokémon games have been disappointing for a while, and their old rivals like digimon and yugioh don’t put out anything in that genre anymore. So there was a demand and they smartly stepped in and provided an alternative

[@POPToppins]

That sucks

[@Dtr146]

People are acting like this is the only overnight sensation that's happened in the past 5 years. I can count on two hands a number of games that were created in the past two years alone that became overnight sensations

[@deathjack2032]

They aren’t? This happened with the finals too

[@jstr6522]

This game outsold the biggest games of the last few years by a long shot. It outsold Hogwarts legacy by 10x in it's overall run, and palworld has only been out a few days. Hate all you want but that's still baffling

[@Dtr146]

@@jstr6522 how am I hating? I love the game. I just hate all these people that are immediately going oh no Nintendo's going to do something. Nintendo can't do anything.

[@PizzaMASTER-nl7pu]

@@jstr6522hogwarts sold over 22 millions copies and was like 60-80 dollars compared to a 30 dollar game and it sold 5 million

[@Bestow3000]

@@Dtr146 Now that it has outsold Scarlet/Violet, I am intrigued to see how GF is reacting to it.

[@michaelswinney9154]

I downloaded Palworld on Saturday and before I knew it I was 16 hours in and completely addicted. It's a genuinely fun game, yes the concept is bananas but past that it is very satisfying and the price is great for the type of game it is. Is it a bit buggy, yes, is it a combination of a lot of triple A games, yes. But two points 1. Pokemon has been a complete dumpster fire for years and what people have always wanted from Pokemon is a open world adventure set in the Pokemon universe. They have barely given us that. even with all the money that IP has they haven't produced a game half as well coded as Palworld. 2. I don't find it derivative, I feel like it's more of an homage to great games and concepts. I seems more like reading a really good fan fiction. At the end of the day you either like it or you don't.

[@technicallyme]

I've patented software before and it's extremely difficult to prove you could do something someone else could do

[@jekebe4858]

A fun, perfectly serviceable game at half the price of a AAA game, what's not to like?

[@POPToppins]

To bad it isn't fun

[@jekebe4858]

@@POPToppins Might I suggest you take it up with all the people playing it, to the point of breaking multiple records, and who really don't care what you think?

[@lennoxoconnell5541]

The whole argument with it being AI is bonkers to me. It looks to me as if they were going for almost parody. Like, yes we all know it’s Wooloo, but it isn’t. That’s what makes it so fun. It IS charizard, but not Charizard*tm. In the games as an art form argument, I for one love a game being a game. Every game seems to need to have a meta narrative about jack-all. You know what Mario is about? A damn plumber rescuing the princess. That’s it! No one is dealing with tragedy, or racism, or bigotry, or ableism. Just the classic hero’s journey. Isn’t that good enough?

[@EhurtAfy]

It's so weird to see an indie developer I really liked have a massive win like Palworld. The game was on my Steam wishlist for two years and not that many people talked about it seriously. Then it just exploded upon release date. The strangest thing to me is how similar Palworld is to their other game Craftopia yet Palworld has become insanely more popular. Not to mention, the developer Pocket Pair consistently worked on Craftopia and provided a roadmap for years, and as of yet they've delivered although it took a while in some cases

[@mdnp-grid487]

It's similar but in the end it's different. I also love craftopia, my character is max lv and i enjoy the combat there but it's TOO much of a low effort joke game with a lot of performance issues and annoying gameplay jank for people to even attempt trying it.

[@EhurtAfy]

@@mdnp-grid487 I have over 100 hours in Craftopia and about 30 in Palworld so far. Palworld benefits from the many lessons Pocket Pair learned while developing Craftopia over the past several years. Not sure I agree with Craftopia being a joke game, the developers are basically magicians. It takes very talented programmers to implement so many features in Craftopia without the whole game exploding. After the seamless world update, which only launched recently in late-2023, Craftopia has a very similar look and feel to Palworld vice versa Palworld and Craftopia share 90% of the same DNA and share almost all their features. For both games, climbing, gliding, feel copy/pasted and so does the look and behavior of NPCs and NPC villages. Both games let you gather resources and build a base. Both games let you craft armor, weapons, etc. Both games let you capture with prisms/spheres over 100 creatures (and people), upgrade pets/pals, mount/ride, breed, put them to work, and/or farm them for resources. Both games let you explore a seamless open world Breath of the Wild style. Both games let you explore overworld dungeons and fight bosses in an identical manner. You can explore using a mount on the ground or fly through the air. The biggest difference is Palworld has a much bigger emphasis on creature-collecting and launched in a more polished state. The developers gave the Pals a lot of personality and whimsy just like Pokemon and Digimon. As a result, the Pals are much more endearing than the pets In Craftopia, which are only animals like cows, deer, or generic fantasy creatures like goblins, skeletons, etc. Craftopia has a much bigger emphasis on crafting, automation, and MMO-style combat and levelling. Craftopia attempted too much for its own good, the whole game suffered from feature creep. The developers learned their lesson, and over time, have simplified and streamlined the mechanics in Craftopia although it hasn’t been painless. They completely gutted the way every item was enchanted so random logs and cheese don’t have enchantments anymore. Much better for item management, stacking/sorting. A random difference between the games is in regards to automating things off-screen. Craftopia required you to build monoliths to keep things automated (keep world chunks active) all over the map. This feature was extremely handy and let you build anywhere and keep exploring. Palworld removed the need to place monoliths by just limiting construction entirely to the radius around the Pal Box and it also limits the number of bases total. Palworld has the better solution, but Craftopia has the more interesting solution in my opinion. Craftopia has many things Palworld just doesn’t have. Craftopia has large skill trees for the player character that lets them learn dozens of skills, spells, and attacks. Craftopia also has much more depth with building and automation, I've spent many sleepless nights perfecting farms and breeding pens, making them 100% self-sustaining. Craftopia also has an interesting enchanting system and more complex farming. You can also fish in Craftopia which I personally enjoy. To sum up, Craftopia is like Satisfactory, Fortnite, and Breath of the Wild all at once. Palworld is like Ark: Survival Evolved, Breath of the Wild, and Pokemon all at once. I think both games are great and hopefully the success of Palworld helps Pocket Pair polish improve all their games. For both Craftopia and Palworld, a lot of the animations are not very good looking and a lot of the map is missing textures and collision layers. The success is completely unprecedented, but I would be playing today Palworld regardless

[@StrikeNoir105E]

Craftopia really didn't have an easy "hook" that made it appealing and memorable. I mean the people who played it like it, but it didn't have anything visible you can put forward that would attract survival crafting gamers to it. Palworld on the other hand has the unofficial "Pokemon with Guns" meme going around that means people got very, very intrigued just to see what it's about.

[@deathtaall]

My problem with Craftopia is I loved it infinitely more before they made it open world. Personally, my friends and I feel that they stripped out tons of fun gameplay elements from their original version when they went to the open world model. prior to the change, i had somewhere around 80 hours in the game. after the change, I think i put in another 10 or so. It just really seemed like they tried to go for size over substance. couple this with the fact that there's been very few large updates since the change, and it just feels like a dead game to me. This was (and still is) my biggest concern with Palworld. That they'll make a ton of cash off the top, and then just leave it to die

[@geekedstoner4209]

It's not that it's a 1 off. They gave people what they wanted from other games and they made it fun! Pokemon could've easily made a game like this and it would've been the best thing in gaming. They filled the missing hole that most gamers and fans of pokemon have been asking for forever! Suicide squad is a repeat of other games we didn't like and that's the difference! Suicide squad has the same bones as marvel avengers and Gotham knights, 2 titles that the majority of players didn't click wit. This game is doin it with ideas and mechanics that we like and they made it work. We gotta stop comparing everything to Suicide squad when there really is no similarities between the 2🤣🤣. Decent takes tho, keep up the work guys/gals!! Love the content!!

[@Zephyrt3mp3st]

Yea Palworld is more like a cross between Conan and Ark. Where its survival mechanics are concerned. The only thing it has that is like Pokemon is the monster taming aspect and that they have an element wheel, but even their element wheel operates differently as well as how variants come into play. The Fortnite aspect is only the simplistic combat. However if they add a battle royal mode it would go fluidly and be a wise choice for a multiplayer game mode. A battle tower like Pokemon's multiplayer would also be a wise choice to implement though. This game fills a niche "Survival/Monster Tamer" Ark has their own "Poke balls" does that make them "Pokemon with dinosaurs"? No. Palworld gave them a "Monster" type that leaves them open to create whatever mythical creature they desire the same way Pokemon did. That isn't a copyright issue. Digimon also used the same "Monster" type.

[@erecto_patronum]

Palworld is what Pokemon wish to be. Minus the butchering of creatures of course.

[@mistahrobb963]

Is it me, but AA and Indies have been carrying the industry on their backs for the last few years.

[@xeralexdragonheart3464]

When I first saw a trailer of this game, I thought myself, that was a bad joke of some scammers. Now I feel I want to say thank you to the people that made it, because they shook the big industries a bit more, showing what a some idea and and just deliver it as a whole experience can achieve. As for the AI part, I am against it. Always will be, but if they used it as tool, that what it was meant to be, not to help them with their work, the work that they sit down and put hours to code, that I can and will accept. I do believe it can become a tool for minor help to the coding, like copy paste codes you have done, or locate wrong codes you wrote and point them out to you to fix them. That can always save a ton of time indeed, but only that. Regardless though, at the end I am happy again, cause the big names now start shaking even more. They will either learn or lose everything, and the newcomers will take the lead

[@WalkingDistance8]

The difference between something like Palworld and Suicide Squad is that Palworld takes a proven formula (Pokemon) and does what everyone wanted Gamefreak to do with the Pokemon franchise. It gives the player more freedom. It's essentially Pokemon fanfiction, but as a video game. Obviously, I haven't played it, but Suicide Squad seemingly takes the same formula we've seen a thousand times, and does nothing new with it. The entire appeal of the game seems to be mindless combat but you get to play as your favorite(?) Suicide Squad members.

[@8ball321]

So much better than any pokemon game produced to date, so addictive and fun gameplay

[@POPToppins]

Emerald Black White Platinum and XY make this game look like ass 😂😂😂

[@miroz0181]

this real issue with Palworld is that its a game that people really want and thats why its so popular

[@POPToppins]

😂

[@twoeyedbill1337]

Palworld is just gonna be a one off game. Id be surprised if a few years from now we get a palworld 2.

[@sterlingkart9562]

Games like power world proves that the game's industry is just super inflated when it comes to their budgets and the reason why these AAA studios aren't breaking, evening is the fact that they're not spreading the wealth on making maybe one AAA game and a handful of smaller projects like they used to back in the PS2 era of games Current game development is not sustainable and we need more games that are like this or of that double A lower budget essence for companies to survive

[@brady9592]

If this is heavily ai, the industry will learn what they always do - try and imitate success - so they’ll fire more of their teams in an attempt to make cheap derivations of their earlier labors via automation.

[@aliquidgaming1068]

True But also AI is inevitable in some spaces Localizers in the US have fucked up so badly Japan is moving to replace them with AI cause of how bad they disrespect the culture and language. Also AI can be used well. Of course most larger companies will only rush to make the fastest and most monetary gain. We will have to see how it all plays out

[@StrikeNoir105E]

Palworld was announced with a trailer that showed alpha gameplay and a good number of the current Pal designs... back in 2021. This was well before generative AI became trendy and mainstream, so the people trying to claim that Palworld used AI are by implication claiming that Pocket Pair are trailblazing pioneers with amazing foresight able to see that AI was the future and thus used them for their game, which considering that the Palworld devs have admitted to their development being an utter trainwreck makes it clear that this can't be the case.

[@Factsonly-oh9mg]

No problem from me in they fire staff.

[@brady9592]

@@StrikeNoir105E It's an exceptional situation and someone does end up being the first to pull things off (AI is already in games though and has been for a while now, I remember it making headlines when High on Life was revealed to have ai-generated assets). I'm not certain by the way and it does seem like there's some weirdness to its development - SkillUp just made a news video that has a nice encapsulation of where the questions and controversies are at the moment. The team most definitely is into ai and copying others work, at minimum.

[@Factsonly-oh9mg]

@succubusYT so? The games awesome, if this is shovel where then more please

[@Bman32x]

Is there some metric they’re counting Game Pass downloads as sales as well? That said, if there really were 5 million purchases within a couple days, this is incredible for the studio who made it.

[@CorruptionAura]

Well they have almost 2 million concurrent players on steam, number 2 on that leaderboard (only pubg ever hit more i believe when they went ftp) so this is still an insane accomplishment.

[@lynell2B375]

for people who's worried over palworld doesn't have originality or it's own identity or something like that. I'm sure they'll develop their own identity overtime. This usually happens with with other clone games as well

[@alexandreutiyama547]

About the 3d models, the poster seemingly confirmed that they manipulated the scale and mesh to look like pokemon and palworld models were 1:1 saying sort of "sorry, but not really, I hate this game". Not sure if the posts were made from the original person who made the comparisson, so take this info with a grain of salt.

[@Lark88]

Even thought the game isn't completely original, I wouldn't call it soulless. The devs seem to care about the game they made. I don't think a soulless game would be as fun.

[@Wesgarbarwil1420]

Production values are nice but only if there's a game behind it. Ff16 for example felt like an interactive movie. Spiderman has amazing production values but is a shorter game where the story is important. I've played Palworld for about 15 hours since launch and its buggy as hell, but my god is it fun!!

[@AdamVanHouten]

I'm interested to hear some convo about the other pocketpair game coming out, NeverGrave.

[@Zzinged]

Where on earth did you get the $20,000 budget figure from? They've publicly posted the development cost them $6.75 million

[@kent9377]

The only think I am hoping is that it makes where if you and friends create a world then anyone can access it if you are part of the group no matter who's online or not

[@ThatSoddingGamer]

I don't see the game getting completely obliterated with legal troubles. More likely they'll end up having to pay a settlement, and update the game to remove/change the models that are too similar if not identical, probably halting further sales until that's resolved. It has just made too much money and gotten too popular too fast for the gaming community to be happy if it gets entirely delisted. On the off chance it does get delisted it's definitely not going away; it would survive on cracked copies. The game can be played singleplayer or multiplayer (though I don't know how much the game 'calls home' to the publisher servers, but that could likely be made to function on player-run servers in that case). I've been playing it lately, and whilst I think the base building and managing aspect can be a bit too time consuming, it's a fun game.

[@RobbieZ84]

I think when it comes to videogames, gameplay is core to the art. Visual style and sound are important, but to a much lesser degree. The game is not hiding its... homage... its wearing it on its sleeve. Other games that took assets and tossed them together and made hot garbage did so by literally using asset store assets and not doing anything to them and mashing them all together. The game has a gameplay loop, they seem to have built a ton of assets themselves, they may have... borrowed some assets... and they may very well need to alter them if they did, but I don't think people are playing the game looking for specific pokemon (etc) as much as laughing about how much they all look like pokemon. I went to a concert a few years ago and they played a scene from the Simpsons on the screen. No one afterwards batted an eye upset that they recycled assets... we were there for the music, it was clearly a joke. When you play rockband, you don't get angry that at the unoriginal sound track, you are literally there for it. The gameplay is the core of videogames, everything else is set dressing.

[@MurtorSH]

At least once a year I hear someone say: "A Pokémon MMO would make millions, and millions of dollars." Palworld is the closest thing we have what a Pokémon MMO could look like. And it took the gaming world by a landslide.

[@clawgerber1992]

The first bit of the vid kinda misses the point. Its successful because he took the elements of other successful games and made a game that's enjoyable to play. Trend chasing corporations and shovelware developers just blindly apply a checklist of trends and marketable elements to a game. Very different

[@POPToppins]

No it isn't lol

[@clawgerber1992]

@TheUnseen0n3 they get to in the later part, but they still conflate the two concepts in the beginning

[@cactusmanbwl1990]

Heres the bottom line... The game is fun. That's why it's doing well. It's selling because it's fun. I honestly think the majority of the discourse is coming from Playstation only gamers.

[@revmaillet]

up to 8 mil now....... there are a lot of people saying they dont usually like this type of game (survival) but they are hooked.

[@camaroyarger320]

as long as they don't lock the most fun items/pals/weapons/crafting behind paywalls like most games these days, then Palworld has everything I've wanted in video games since playing dragon quest monsters on the gbc, 7dtd, and terraria. the last mechanic missing is world harvesting/shaping from 7dtd, terraria, Minecraft, or even red faction.

[@LeftyWick]

The truth is most game studio CEO's are not gamers. So they have no clue what we as gamers actually like. You can tell Palworld is a game where the creators were like," you know it would be cool if we made a game that.... etc". Most CEO's just want GTA money and do not even know that the very first GTA was free and in GTA you do not need to spend real money. It is only a time saving mechanic.

[@crisiskrow]

Stitching mechanics isn’t an issue per se but I feel this ruffled feathers because these “unique” monsters don’t look like they’re inspired but instead ripped straight from Pokemon.

[@AMagicalBakewell]

Amazing what a company who wants to make a fun game, as opposed to a money printing product can make, isn't it? Seriously, this is my biggest problem with triple A gaming at this point. Just make a fun game from passionate developers and stop with the half-finished, rushed, soul-less storefronts disguised as games. Keep your fucking season passes, micro-transactions, and 900 different types of premium currency.

[@zachtwilightwindwaker596]

Is Pokémon with guns really something people wanted?

[@powerfantastic01]

Ppl don't care as long as it's fun. Palworld combines a lot of very addictive gameplay hooks that just work to pull the player in. But still it needs a lot of work. It's just not close to a finished product and you realize that the more you play.

[@midnightblue3285]

The game have alot of modding potentioality

[@POPToppins]

It's not

[@midnightblue3285]

@@POPToppins You don't have the vision then

[@theoneandonlylaz2989]

Dreams walked so Pal World could run x

[@jasongodfrey4158]

Is there a difference because the developers didn't have to answer to a greedy publisher? That in itself would cut the cost down by not having a bunch of people in suits who don't play video games, trying to dictate what's being done, or forcing unnecessary features into the game to try eek out every dollar they can from gamers.

[@beak3331]

I mean pokemon ripped off dragon quest so not sure Nintendo have a leg to stand on

[@RageofAlma]

The real reason this game was a hit was because it was pokemon but more. The pokemon games besides Arcus have all been the same thing over and over again since the beginning. Plus in recent versions the quality as dipped alot. So Palword comes in and says hey were pokemon but different. You can fight along side your monsters plus its not turn based and you can do things besides battling. No wonder it blew up so much the fan based was starved for something new for decades

[@khrisbreezy3628]

Am I the only one missing actual outros on WC videos? It feels strange to just end abruptly 😅

[@demopem]

Maybe they've found that no-one watches outros anyway... The internet generation is impatient. "Oh, they're done. >click< Next video"

[@raphaeltremblay8639]

So would you rather give money to a smaller company that made a game that copied assets and mechanics from other games and actually made it fun to play and not just a cash grab? Or you would rather support those big companies who keep remaking the same games over and over again which have not even been fun anymore for a while and charge you more and more for the game while at the same time giving you less and less every year? It should be an easy choice. Why is there any debates about this?

[@erth8096]

That $20,000 budget is total BS. If you have 20 people working on a game, you are going to run out of $20K before the month ends. Now think about all the additional costs, like equipment, software subscriptions, rent, and other bills. It's simply impossible to make a game with a $20,000 budget when there are 20+ people working on it. If you pay them $2000 per month in salary, it's going to be $40k for a month. I am a game developer, so I know how expensive making games can get.

[@ShadowSHLD]

the thing is in Palworld u can do what ever u want u aint limited to what the company thinks u should do in the game

[@birichinaxox9937]

Perfect example of actual having ppl that play and focus on what they would enjoy playing. The AAAs been leaving a gap in a market they made by being greedy and arrogant. Chef kiss to the bs "get used to not owning your games", console exclusivity, constant micro transactions and big bucks for a broken mess of a game.

[@masquerade3852]

From an outsider looking in( I don't play them) The thing is Pokemon has been a monopoly on the genre forever now so they're getting used to dropping half assed stuff and people are getting tired of it

[@Juggtacula]

My main gripe is that almost every Pal is a nearly 1:1 copy of a Pokemon. They aren't even trying to be subtle about it. Ive seen a Suicune, a Raichu, Latios, I can name so many.

[@2ndexodus1000]

This just shows what is the most desireable attribute in gaming is.........FUN!!!

[@algarcia689]

With the lack of originality, What’s the difference between being nakedly honest and completely cynical? And the difference between “we just wanted to make something that people liked” and “we just wanted to make tons of money”?

[@StrikeNoir105E]

People may have already mentioned this, but the supposed "evidence" with the wireframe meshes has been shown to not actually hold water under closer scrutiny. As shown by other people knowledgeable in the topic, without the actual texture map on top the actual wireframe underneath is proportionally different, and don't even match up. The only reason it looks like it matched up in the "evidence" is because the video deliberately obscured the things that would show the rather large differences. And the person who "provided" the evidence has been shown to have a clear vendetta against the game to the point they'd fabricate evidence just to get people mad at it, all because he dislikes that it "promotes animal cruelty". It's seriously insane.

[@greglane501]

$1 mill budget doesn't make sense though. Imagine paying all of those employees for YEARS with a 20k budget... how could they afford to live?