Palworld developer Pocketpair reaffirmed its commitment to not use generative AI in any way, pushing back against claims that stated Pocketpair used generative AI to create various assets. The statement came as Palworld prepared for it’s highly-anticipated 1.0 release after two years of early access.
It’s no secret that generative AI has been a touchy subject across the gaming and tech industries the last few years. Though various developers have condemned its usage and stated that generative AI has led to layoffs across the gaming industry, some games like Crazy Taxi and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis have confirmed the usage of generative AI during game development. Generative AI’s usage has since led Valve to enforce a generative AI disclosure policy on Steam, forcing developers to state if a game has used the emergent technology in any way.
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Pocketpair: Generative AI is “Pointless”
Despite its widespread usage, some game developers have pushed back against generative AI, including Pocketpair. Pocketpair publishing and communications lead John “Bucky” Buckley stated that Palworld’s development was completely made by humans, free of any generative AI usage. Buckley stated that, while some developers outside Pocketpair are still likely to use generative AI despite the growing pushback, Pocketpair does not use it simply because, “gamers don’t want it.” Buckley said, “I don’t really think gen AI has much – I don’t want to call it a bubble, but I don’t know how much longer it’s gonna keep up. Even Steam is pushing back a certain amount on it.”
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Buckley stated that Pocketpair has a lot of in-house artists that like to create things by themselves, and called getting rid of them just to use generative AI “pointless.” Despite Valve’s stance, other companies have since increased efforts to utilize generative AI as a staple feature. One example is Epic Games’ upcoming Unreal Engine 6. The next iteration of Unreal will utilize generative AI as a key feature for developers to utilize. Once it is widely available, titles like Fortnite and Rocket League will likely migrate to Unreal Engine 6 at the earliest opportunity. However, Unreal Engine 5 and older versions of Epic’s popular game engine will still be available for developers as needed.
Palworld’s stance came amid allegations that developer Pocketpair had plagiarized Pokemon for various pieces of content, such as creature designs and game mechanics. The accusations came to a head after Nintendo sued Pocketpair for patent infringement in 2024. However, Nintendo has since been on the back foot in its case against Pocketpair following several rulings against them. Nintendo has since lessened the scope of its patent lawsuit to only apply to older versions of Palworld that have since been deprecated. In short, Pocketpair is unlikely to be severely damaged by Nintendo’s case.
As for Pocketpair itself, Palworld is set to exit early access and be fully released on July 10. With various features confirmed for Palworld‘s 1.0 release, including new environments to explore and Pals to collect, time will tell how Pocketpair’s popular survival crafting game will fare in the long term.
- Released
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January 19, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen Due To Violence
- Developer(s)
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Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Publisher(s)
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Pocket Pair, Inc.
Source: GamesRadar+