Open-world survival game Palworld – which I totally predicted would be huge – has exploded in popularity, in large part due to its simple pitch: what if you were a Pokemon trainer, but you could also use guns? Palworld allows players to exploit its totally-not-Pokemon in any way imaginable, whether that be eating them for sustenance, putting them to work in factory conditions OSHA wouldn't approve of, and, yes: shooting them with guns.
Evidently, players are loving it, as Palworld has soared to be the third most-played game in the history of Steam in terms of concurrent player count.
With Palworld's success, however, also comes the looming threat of a lawsuit from the famously trigger-happy Nintendo. Detractors are saying many of the Pokemon-esque "Pals" in the game are simply plagiarized, but I think that Nintendo missed out on a goldmine by not officially putting Pokemon on PC 15 years ago.
They have no one but themselves to blame for somebody else filling that niche—and adding guns.
