Pokemon and Palworld clone Pickmos removed from Steam: "We are revising the game to ensure a controversy-free experience"

Not even developer Pocketpair fully understands what makes its survival, monster-grabber Palworld so ridiculously successful, but it seems Pickmos creator PocketGame is eager to try. The upcoming game looks like a sloppy copy-paste of its Pokemon and Palworld inspirations, fans of those franchises worry, and it's just been pulled from Steam after its publisher Networkgo decided to intervene.

Networkgo explains in a Steam update posted on April 16, telling potential players, "We've heard your feedback regarding the removal of our Steam store page and want to clear things up. Networkgo has officially intervened in the development of Pickmos. We will be supervising the PocketGame team from a player's perspective to ensure the game keeps getting better."

Pickmos was originally announced as Pickmon last month, though PocketGame changed the game's title just this week after deciding "Pickmos" would "better align with our brand identity and lore." The "-mos" suffix represents a "grand Cosmos," the developer says, plus "a more powerful presence," and I'd add that the one letter difference also makes the game sound slightly less like a Pokemon ripoff.

No one's mourning the old title, anyway. Since the game's reveal in March, its Steam community page has been plastered with plagiarism accusations, people predicting lawyer intervention as casually as they forecast rain, and doubting that PocketGame actually intends to release Pickmos.

"SCAM WARNING," says one popular Steam discussion post. "This game isn't real. It's an asset flip using stolen designs, models, etc from various sources. Make sure to help report it off of steam."

Well, they got what they wanted – PocketGame tells someone on Twitter, "We are revising the game to ensure a controversy-free experience. It will be re-released once our publisher gives the final approval." (I think by "re-released," the developer means put back on Steam; Pickmos never had a release date.) But I'm confused by the backlash from Palworld fans, in particular.

Palworld has also been accused of being a shameless Pokemon copy – Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are still suing Pocketpair for patent infringement – and artists are alleging Pickmos directly steals their designs, the same way fans debate how much of Palworld's assets are pure thievery. But, I admit, the facts that "PocketGame" so closely mirrors Pocketpair's studio name and brazenly made its game's original title, Pickmon, look like a "Pokemon" typo suggests a more cynical strategy.

The strategy is, be a snake eating itself. It seems the Pokemon-likes are starting to cannibalize each other.

There's a good reason for it – Palworld fans are currently clamoring for Palworld 1.0, so games that would otherwise be pure Pokemon copies are hoping to siphon that energy for their projects. Pokemon-like Temtem, for example, has suddenly decided to create a survival crafting game fans seem to be looking forward to.

But to avoid its publisher's ire and get back on Steam, Pickmos should probably give up on that idea and emulate Palworld's truest strength: slowly making itself unmistakeable.

Palworld dev wishes "nothing but the best" for new Temtem survival game and says Pocketpair "thought the trailer looked great," but he knows comparisons are inevitable.