Nexus Mods – one of the largest modding sites on the internet – has confirmed that it will not host Pokémon-themed Palworld mods, saying that doing so “almost certainly… exposes us to the risk of legal action” given Nintendo's history of litigation. .
The highlight of Palworld, of course, are the Pokémon-like friends that roam its open world, all of whom can be captured (in a very Pokémon-like way) to aid in exploration and survival. The sometimes striking similarity between Pals and Pokémon's creature designs has been a major talking point since its Early Access launch, and it was inevitable that modders would start replacing Palworld-derived creatures with the real ones.
It only took a few days for the first Palworld Pokémon mod to arrive, and as fast as you want, Nintendo's lawyers have been working on it. “Nintendo came through for me,” YouTube user ToastedShoes wrote just one day after Pokémon Palworld was shown on social media, where all footage was suddenly removed “in response to a report from the copyright holder.”
PALWORLD EARLY ACCESS TIPS – Get reward, hack and more!
In this climate, Nexus Mods is now saying no to hosting Pokémon-themed Palworld mods. in Statement provided to PCGamesN — who discovered Ash Ketchum's mod for Palworld had apparently been removed from the site — Nexus Mods community lead Mathew Elliott admitted: “We think adding Pokémon content to Palworld is a very cool idea and we understand why people would want such a thing.” However, we are not comfortable hosting this content.”
The statement continued by way of clarification: “As you are aware, Nintendo (which jointly owns the Pokémon series) has an established record of filing legal challenges, DMCA, and takedowns against fan-made content. Given Palworld's similarity to ” “Pokémon as a core game, hosting content that adds characters or copyrighted assets to the game will almost certainly put us at risk for legal action.”
“We don't think it's worth the risk to allow this content to be shared in our community. At best, we'll have to deal with the headaches of DMCA/legal threats from Nintendo, and at worst they may seek to take action against us and our sponsors.” Download the modifications directly.
While Pokémon and Palworld are banned on Nexus Mods, the company noted that there are “many creative opportunities to explore mods for this game that add to the world and gameplay, but do not clearly infringe on existing intellectual property rights” and that it is “really excited to see what the community comes up with.” Modify Palworld.”
As for Palworld itself, the game's launch has now seen it reach a high of over 2 million concurrent players on Steam – that's the second-highest number of concurrent players in the platform's 21-year history, although Palworld still has a long way to go before that . It breaks the record of 3,257,248 concurrent players set by PUBG in 2018.
Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell was less than enamored with Palworld when he shared his early impressions on the site this week. “The real problem with Palworld is not the derivative approach itself, but the sheer impudence,” he wrote. “It can be strangely refreshing to be so open about your sarcasm, but it also has an impact on the player. Play Palworld and you won't feel like you're playing something made with the thought, craftsmanship, or best of a serious team. Intentions. You won't feel impressed or amazed. You won't feel any real sense of accomplishment. You won't feel like any artist was involved, or that anything meaningful came to mind. Instead, you'll feel like you're playing a product designed to be sold, rather than playing with it. You will feel like a mark. And you will be right.”
“Web specialist. Lifelong zombie maven. Coffee ninja. Hipster-friendly analyst.”
