Palworld Should Be Called ‘ARK Meets Factorio’—Not ‘Pokémon With Guns,’ Says Dev

Ever since Palworld burst onto the scene, the internet has clung to a simple, viral tagline: “Pokémon with guns.” It’s catchy. It’s meme-worthy. And according to the developers at Pocketpair, it’s also deeply misleading.

In an interview with IGN during the Game Developers Conference, John "Bucky" Buckley—who handles communications and publishing at Pocketpair—opened up about how the nickname has followed the studio since Palworld’s first trailer in 2021. And while it undeniably helped propel the game into the spotlight, it’s not how the team wants people to think about their work.

“We had a really good reception when we first showed the game to a Japanese audience,” Buckley told IGN. “But very quickly, Western media got eyes on it, and we were branded as a ‘certain franchise’ plus guns.”

Despite surface-level similarities, Buckley said Palworld was never meant to be a dark twist on Pokémon. In fact, the team’s real inspiration came from an entirely different direction—ARK: Survival Evolved.

“A lot of us are huge ARK people,” Buckley said. “We wanted to take that and make it bigger. With ARK, it’s all about the dinosaurs. Some are cute, some are cool—but we wanted our creatures to have more personality, more abilities, more uniqueness.”

The same point was echoed by Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe, both after Palworld’s launch in January 2024 and again in September, when Nintendo hit the company with a lawsuit. Speaking to Automation, Mizobe clarified that while Pokémon was undeniably an influence, Palworld drew far more heavily from ARK in terms of core gameplay and mechanics. Like ARK, Palworld emphasizes survival, resource gathering, base-building, and fending off dangers—areas where Pokémon offers little comparison.

Mizobe also noted that while the monster collection might look familiar, Palworld’s creatures (or “Pals”) are used for much more: combat, crafting, labor, and even food.

This strong emphasis on survival mechanics—and distancing from traditional monster-battling tropes—could also be part of Pocketpair’s legal strategy. Given how notoriously protective Nintendo is of its intellectual properties, clearly defining Palworld as fundamentally different helps the company push back against comparisons that might invite further legal trouble.

Meanwhile, Buckley admits the nickname gave the game invaluable visibility, he also finds it frustrating when people assume that’s all Palworld is. “The thing that upsets us is the people who firmly believe that’s what the game actually is. But it’s not even remotely like that to play,” he said.

When asked what label he would have preferred, Buckley offered a much less punchy—but arguably more objective—alternative: “Palworld: It’s kind of like ARK if ARK met Factorio and Happy Tree Friends.”

Regardless of the label, Palworld has seen massive success. As of February 2025, the game has sold over 32 million copies across platforms, including Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox. It racked up 8 million sales within just six days of its January 2024 launch.