Pocketpair CEO Speaks Out Against Tencent and Chinese Companies for Developing Palworld Clones

There’s no doubt that Palworld is one of the most popular titles out there right now. The game came out of nowhere and quickly shot to fame, with players dubbing it the “Pokemon with guns” title. The game’s developers, Pocketpair, have often expressed their gratitude to the community for the title’s popularity and have been constantly working on delivering new content for the game. When small indie games like Palworld become popular, we often see their clones being released. Currently, a Palworld clone is being developed by the well-known gaming giant Tencent, and Pockepair’s CEO, Takuro Mizobe, hasn’t taken this development lightly.

Pocketpair CEO Calls Out Tencent and Chinese Companies for Palworld Clones

With a post on X, Takuro Mizobe, CEO of Pocketpair, has called out Tencent and other developers for developing Palworld clones.

Mizobe also shared an image of Tencent's upcoming Palworld clone, which features various creatures taking care of a farm. This game, called "Auroria," is a new sandbox title that's being developed by Tianjin Wumai Technology Co, owned by Tencent. According to Pocketpair's CEO, various other developers from China are already working on making Palworld clones. Some of these games have a development budget of up to 10 billion yen, which is approximately ten times the budget required to develop Palworld. Mizobe also believes that a lot of "Genshin-quality monster (or girl) breeding games" will be coming out next year.

Palworld fans around the globe have reacted to Mizobe’s X post and praised Pockeptair for the successful game they’ve created. Some users also believe that Palworld’s presence in the industry is making it more competitive, which will definitely lead to more variety for players. Players are still skeptical, but many of them believe that Tencent has the ability to out-develop any competition due to its incredible wealth and assets.

When Palworld originally debuted, many people in the gaming industry called it a Pokemon clone due to its many similarities with the popular Nintendo franchise. Some players even accused Pocketpair of outright stealing assets from the iconic franchise. However, Pocketpait continued to launch its original Pals and features with regular updates.

Tencent's “Palworld clone” is scheduled to launch on Steam in Q2 2024. The game’s launch might coincide with the upcoming PvP update for Palworld. However, we already know that Palworld updates will continue into 2024, and eventually, the title will exit early access.