Palworld, often referred to as ‘Pokémon with guns’, launched in January 2024 to a mix of enthusiastic and critical responses. After gaining over two million users on Steam within days, the game drew fierce criticism, especially regarding its production methods.

During a GDC 2025 talk, community manager John Buckley remarked that it became ‘super popular to hate Palworld’, attributing this phenomenon to the game acting like an ‘impressions printing machine.’ He mentioned that the weight of negative attention was significant, with claims surfacing that the game utilized generative AI during its creation.

Community Accusations and Defense

Buckley defended the game against various allegations, stating:

“I could stand here and tell you we didn’t AI generate Palworld, but at least five people in this room are going to say ’liar.’ But that’s what it is. We’ve kind of given up repeating this, but we didn’t, I promise.”

Concerning claims of plagiarism, Takuro Mizobe, the CEO of Pocketpair, labeled them ‘slanderous’. As accusations mounted, Buckley revealed that the studio was set to ‘go on the offensive’, sharing concept artworks and expounding on their internal ‘Pal Vote’ process, where their designs are voted on by the development team.

Despite the ongoing rumors regarding generative AI and plagiarism, Palworld continues to maintain a steady average of about 25,000 concurrent players on Steam, with Pocketpair working on new features such as crossplay options. Buckley concluded by stating, ‘Very few companies could survive a post-Palworld situation like we did.’