Fans repeatedly compare Palworld and Pokemon to each other, but not everyone is convinced that Pikachu’s franchise will be affected by the brash newcomer.
Palworld is often cited as being a mix between Pokemon and games like Ark or Valhiem. It combines monster catching with building bases and surviving in a dangerous world, making for an exciting mix that has rocketed Palworld up the Steam charts within a few days.
A lot of the discussion about the two franchises has concerned Palworld’s similarities to Pokemon. More importantly, how many Pals are a bit too similar to iconic Pokemon, leading to accusations of plagiarism from the fanbase?
But what about Pokemon? Will the incredible success of Palworld affect the upcoming plans for new Pokemon games? Is it possible that The Pokemon Company has left money on the table by not producing a survival crafting game?
Pokemon fans are divided over Palworld’s influence
A user on the Pokemon Reddit created a meme thread comparing Palworld’s influence to that of Temtem, which was thought of as a potential Pokemon rival but never reached anywhere near the heights that some expected. This led to a debate about Palworld’s influence on Pokemon going forward.
“It really doesn’t because the overwhelming majority of TPC’s sales are from merchandise and that’s never going to be threatened,” one user said, “Pokémon games can be mediocre for all eternity but as long as kids are still buying crap with Pikachu on it there will be no real consequences.”
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“Pokémon will never get competition. It’s the most iconic game, and they know it. That’s why most of the recent games have just been barebones copy paste,” one user wrote, while another said, “Yet they barely ever innovate. Palworld isn’t even remotely similar to it.”
“As pointed out in all the various posts about Palworld,” another user said, “It is hardly competition because they are not the same genre, nor are they targetting the same demographics.”
“Ark would be more accurate. Pokemon is not a survival game. Nor are they targetting kids. Yokai watch is the only one that manage to put a small dent on Pokemon in japan due to them also targetting the kids, but that does not even last.”
Palworld had an incredible first week, but Pokemon had decades of success to rest its laurels on. The Pokemon Company is unlikely to be spooked by Palworld, especially as it’s not even on a Nintendo console yet.
If Palworld continues its successful streak, then we might see a response from The Pokemon Company, but until then, it’s unlikely that Pikachu and his friends will be strapping on ammo belts and building forts out in the Kanto countryside.
