When Palworld first launched, it drew a lot of eyes with the premise of it essentially being Pokémon with guns. That idea got millions of players invested in the game's first few weeks, and while players have dropped off since, the question still remained of did they just get away with making monsters that look suspiciously like Pokémon?
The answer is yes. In January, The Pokémon Company issued a notice that it was looking into Palworld, investigating claims of stolen assets, but according to an interview with GameFile, neither The Pokémon Company or Nintendo have pursued any legal action. "Nintendo and the Pokémon Company didn't say anything to us," said lead creator Takuro Mizobe.
While some of Palworld's creatures do look eerily similar to Pokémon, it seems that all of the designs are just different enough not to warrant legal action. Pocket Pair can breathe a sigh of relief for now, then, as both Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are known to get serious whenever they have to take legal action.