Devs weigh-in as Palworld Pokémon plagiarism accusations worsen
According to two experienced AAA game artists who spoke to VGC, the model comparisons on X are likely evidence that Palworld’s character models were indeed based on Pokémon assets.
“You cannot, in any way, accidentally get the same proportions on multiple models from another game without ripping the models. Or at the very least, tracing them meticulously first,” one senior character artist told VGC anonymously, adding: “I would stand in court to testify as an expert on this.”
The video of the two models placed on top of each other alone is damning but I feel that the added analysis from other artists in the industry is the silver bullet.
I’ve had trouble reconciling the fact that a studio the size of Pocketpair could work on a game like Craftopia and then something with the scale of Palworld and not use tools like AI or repurpose assets from other games. In my mind, this is proof they’re doing one or both of those things.
That said, while we’re all here, I want to just point out that none of this (assuming any of it is true) justifies sending people death threats which Takuro Mizobe, the game’s director and CEO of the company, says the team has been getting.
If you’re following this whole saga and find it frustrating or upsetting, don’t buy the game. Most importantly, leave the people working on a video game alone.