‘Palworld’ Modders Are Already Living In Fear of Nintendo's Legal Team

Palworld is the first big hit video game of 2024. Like all good PC games with a thriving community, mods for Palworld are coming in. But in Palworld’s modding scene, there’s one topic that’s quickly becoming taboo: Pokémon.

The game has only been out a few days, selling over 5 million copies and sparking several interrelated controversies, and mods that make it look more like Pokémon are already floating around. The response from Palworld’s modest modding community has been to avoid the subject entirely, lest they attract the aggressively litigious eyes of Pokémon parent company Nintendo. One major repository for mods, Nexusworld, appears to be proactively removing pages that reference Pokémon mods for Palworld.

Frequently described  as “Pokémon with guns,” Palworld is never beating the allegations that it riffed on Nintendo’s beloved franchise even if it has the trappings of an open-world survival game rather than a true Pokémon-style RPG. It took no time at all for modders to churn out a version of the game that replaces the main character with Ash Ketchum and several of the Pals with actual Pokémon. YouTuber ToastedShoes posted a video of the mod on X, only for Nintendo to hit him with a DMCA takedown.

“Nintendo has come for, please leave me in your thoughts and prayers,” ToastedShoes said in a follow up Tweet. Undeterred, ToastedShoes posted a 16-minute video of himself playing Palworld with the mods installed on YouTube.

“Is that going to stop me, with Nintendo coming for my family?” ToastedShoes said in the YouTube video. “No it will not. Pray for my family, we’re doing Pokémon in Palworld.”

ToastedShoes has more than 700,000 subscribers on YouTube. His most popular videos involve him playing through popular video games using mods that make out of universe characters appear. In one video, he paid a guy to voice Peter Griffin while he played through Halo as the Family Guy. In another, he plays through God of War with Kratos and Atreus replaced by Homer and Bart from The Simpsons. He typically shares the mods he uses with his community, either through Patreon or on Discord.

That may not be happening with the Palworld Pokémon mod, though. “I’ve been getting a large influx of people asking where they can get the mod etc,” ToasteShoes said on his Discord. “We want to release it for free to everyone, however due to Nintendo sending a DMCA over the last tweet we want to tread lightly for the time being. We don’t want a lawsuit but I want to give you all a chance to play it for yourselves. I will keep you all posted on its progress and release. If the video gets tricked though it could very much be it. All depends on Nintendo.” Motherboard reached out to ToastedShoes to see if Nintendo contacted him, but did not hear back.

In other modding spaces on the internet, mentioning Pokémon mods for Palworld is restricted and access to the files is absent. A mod that put Ash into Palworld was up on Nexus Mods was up briefly, but has been pulled with a message saying it’s “under moderation review.” A thread on the Nexus Mods forum suggesting the use of Pokémon assets in Palworld has also been removed.

The Discord server where Palworld modders have gathered is also being careful, banning any discussion of the Pokémon mod:

“I'm sure many of you have been seeing all the content regarding the Pokemon mod for Palworld,” a Discord mod said in a server wide announcement. “While the memes and such are hilarious, the mod alone hosts a giant risk to the community and we'll need to take precautions so that Nintendo's lawyers don't nuke all of us with litigious actions. The mod is highly likely using ripped assets and is very illegal in Nintendo's eyes. Moving forward, here's our stance on the mod:

“Do NOT provide ANY links to this mod whatsoever. Do NOT provide ANY resources to pirate/leak the mod files,” they said. “Posts that involve the above will be immediately deleted and will result in an immediate ban. We realize that this is a very harsh action, but this is something we cannot afford to take lightly. Memes and casual discussion of the mod are allowed, just do NOT link this server to the actual mod and we'll all be safe.”

Nintendo is a famously litigious company, and Palworld looks a lot like Pokémon to begin with so the paranoia is probably warranted. “This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokémon,” Don McGowan, who held the role from 2008 to 2020, told games journalist Stephen Totilo. “I’m just surprised it got this far.”

Pokémon-themed mods for other games have long persisted without controversy. You can get Pokeballs in Fallout 4 and even a fully voiced Pickachu in Skyrim. This list of Stardew Valley mods that use Pokémon-style art assets is too numerous to list. You can even use Blastoise as a handcannon in Resident Evil 4. Some of these mods have been up for years with no ire from Nintendo. Palworld’s breakout success might just put more of a target on its back, however.