Japanese entertainment agencies are reportedly taking measures to avoid potential backlash from The Pokémon Company. Tokyo Sports (via VGC) has said that Japanese entertainment agencies are concerned about upsetting The Pokémon Company, who provides substational revenue in collaborations and media coverage, and have advised their “talent” to avoid mentioning Palworld.
An unnamed talent agency executive was quoted by Tokyo Sports as saying, “We have told our talent not to mention Palworld on social media or in public.”
The exec added, “This was done out of consideration for the Pokemon side of the agency. This decision was made in consideration of future collaborations, etc.”
Controversary
Controversary over Palworld’s character designs began shortly after the game’s launch. In less than a week it managed to sell over 8 million copies and according Microsoft (via VGC) it is the most successful third-party launch thus far on its Game Pass service with almost 3 million active Xbox players. Meanwhile there have been posts claiming that Palword has been more than just inspired by Pokémon but may have actually crossed the line in using some of its designs. Since then The Pokémon Company has said that it is investigating these claims. There has yet to be an update on The Pokémon Company’s investigation but one could be forthcoming soon.
Meanwhile the fallout from the controversary is enough to put some fear into those who depend on Pokémon for revenue and do not want to jeopardize relations with its parent company. On a side note Palworld’s concurrent player count on Steam seems to have levelled off from its epic 2.1 million count to a more modest 1.3 million. However that is still more than enough to keep it in the number one spot with its closest competitor being Valve’s Counter Strike 2 at just nine hundred and fifty thousand.