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The new year has only just begun, but it looks like the biggest games of 2024 are already in store. And it’s not his multi-million dollar sci-fi extravaganza set in a vast universe created by a giant publisher. It’s a survival adventure released by a small Japanese company that had only released one game before. It’s called Palworld, and is more accurately described as a “Pokémon with a gun.” If that sounds terrible, you seem to be very lonely. It sold 5 million copies within three days of its release on January 18th. What in the name of Pikachu is going on?
What is Palworld?
Developed by Tokyo-based Pocketpair, Palworld belongs to the genre known as survival adventure, where players are thrown into a harsh open-world environment to find food and shelter, craft tools, and, of course, fight enemies. While, yes, you have to survive, whether they are aliens or hungry wolves. Minecraft is probably the most famous example, but titles like Rust, Ark, Don’t Starve, and Subnautica all compete in similar fields.
What does it actually do?
You control a character who arrives in a lush open-world environment known as the Parpagos Islands and must survive by farming, cooking, building shelter, and battling various enemy factions. Also, more than 100 kinds of cute creatures called “pals” live in this world, and each one has its own unique abilities. You can catch these cute beasts and use them to fight your enemies or craft useful items in your base.
A big part of the game is exploring the world and looking for allies and resources. It is important to monitor your hunger level and collect resources. As you battle enemies (using captured allies), you unlock new crafting recipes by following various technology trees. You can play alone, but if you choose the PC version, you can also play online with up to 31 other so-called “Paltimers”.
It’s funny, silly, and oddly engrossing even though all the individual elements are very recognizable. Pokemon developer Game Freak has been too reluctant to seriously reinvent its aging series over the past five years, with some feeling that Palworld is the modern incarnation that longtime fans have been craving. There is. Indeed, very well received among many top video game influencers,
No1 game on streaming platform Twitch Within one day of release. This certainly helped attract attention.
So this is like a neoliberal pastiche of Poku
Do we emphasize the immoral exploitation of these animals as mere resources?
Well, maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but it might be true. And in fact, one of the enemy factions you’ll face in the game is the Free Pal Alliance, an activist organization dedicated to freeing Pals from slavery.
Are people mad at obvious pock?
Lemon connection?
This game is highly controversial among some developers, and not just because of its similarities to Pokemon.
Accusing the developer of plagiarism As well as the creature design, it also uses tropes and conventions from other successful survival games, most notably Ark and Rust.However, Nintendo, Creatures, and the Pokémon Company, which are responsible for Pokémon, have yet to comment, although Don McGowan, who managed the Pokémon Company's legal team for 10 years, said:
Game files recently talked about on news sites: “This seems like the same old plagiarism nonsense I saw thousands of times a year when I was chief legal officer at Pokemon. I'm just surprised it's gotten this far.”
Takuro Mizobe, CEO and lead developer at Pocketpair, said:
claimed The game has been checked against legal requirements and does not infringe on copyright.
Also, Pokemon isn’t the only game based on monster hunting.Other titles such as Digimon and Monster Rancher have existed alongside it for many years, and the entire genre has
Insect collecting is a popular hobby in Japan.
, Therefore, it is never a concept that can be followed. The history of video games is one of successful ideas being “borrowed” and improved upon, and most modern genres can be traced back to one or two of his wildly successful ancestors.
There was also debate over whether the studio created assets using AI-generated art without notifying the platform or players.Mr. Mizobe
Showed interest in AI art generation in the past. PC Platform Steam requires studios to:
Disclose the use of AI-generated assets With games sold on the site. There have been concerns in the industry about the potential for job losses from widespread use of generative AI and the unauthorized use of AI models trained on copyrighted material. However, at this time there is no evidence that Pocket Pair used his AI model in this way.
Where can I play?
Although the game is technically still in development,
bug has been resolved.However, you can download it if you have a PC.
Steam Early Access For £25. You can also play a preview version on Xbox, but this version is even less stable and currently doesn’t feature a 32-player online mode. Cooperative play is possible for 2 to 4 people. If you’re into the idea of ​​cute mini monsters wielding machine guns, you know where to go.
Source: www.theguardian.com