Pocketpair's head of publishing and communications, John 'Bucky' Buckley, has admitted that negativity aimed at Palworld does get to the team at times.
Palworld is now two years old somehow, and if the passage of time isn't too scary for you, it is wild to think about where the game is now. Sure, it's still in early access for the time being, but it's spawned a dating sim spinoff, an upcoming farming game spinoff, and – perhaps most impressively – has allowed PocketPair to become a full-blown publisher in its own right. But Pokemon has followed it wherever it goes, both the stigma of being called a ripoff and a legal battle with the owners of the franchise.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Bucky admits, "Palworld is fortunate to enjoy a very large and very active community, but with that also comes a large number of contrarians who take every opportunity to snipe at it." He explains, "I'm not talking about people who just don't like Palworld, that's fair enough, but as with every popular game, there's a percentage of people who make it their unofficial job to rant and rave about the game as often as they can."
And with sustained criticism, Bucky admits, "naturally, the impact these sorts of people have is basically non-existent, but we're only human, so at times even we can get swept up in that negativity."
He adds that "learning to tune out the performative drama and focus on our community" is something he is actively working on, and says "I'd like to think I’m getting better at it!"
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