It took less than 24 hours for Palworld's Pokemon mod to get hit by Nintendo's lawyers

Pokemon Scarlet Violet starters best evolutions — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo is seemingly filing takedown requests against Pokemon mods for Palworld.

Yesterday, just a few days after Palworld launched into early access last week, we quickly saw a Pokemon mod overhauling the game's creatures with 'mons themselves. People were talking about Palworld as 'Pokemon with guns' before launch, and now they've truly delivered on that vision with Pikachu and others in the new survival game.

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Nintendo has come for me, please leave me in your thoughts and prayers pic.twitter.com/HGg65y67QpJanuary 23, 2024

One Palworld modding community even banned Pokemon mods, such was its fear of Nintendo's retaliation. That seems to be the case for the NexusMods community just below - the Reddit post claims NexusMods staff have begun removing Pokemon mods for Palworld entirely.

staff removing palworld mods from r/nexusmods

Interestingly, lawyer Richard Hoeg has weighed in on the original video from Toasted being taken down. The lawyer believes that although the mod itself is clearly infringing on Pokemon's copyright, he thinks it does a "decent job" of showing just how different the core game of Palworld actually is from your standard Pokemon game.

Interestingly, though the mod itself is likely infringing, I think it does a decent job showing just how different base Palworld looks. I still wouldn’t be eager to bring a legal claim on the game itself if I’m Nintendo/Pokemon. https://t.co/7geWa0m7kbJanuary 22, 2024

At the core, Hoeg's argument is bang on: Palworld is very much a survival game, with some RPG stylings layered on top, whereas Pokemon games are fundamentally RPGs. We even wrote yesterday about why we need to stop calling Palworld 'Pokemon with guns,' and it all hinges on the survival and management genre trappings of the new game.

On the other hand, Pokemon's former legal head has weighed in on Palworld, and called it "the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year." That's pretty damning stuff, and from the head of Pokemon's legal department, no less.

Check out our full Palworld type chart guide for a complete look over all the elemental weaknesses at work.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.