Nexusmods removed mods that brought Pokémon content to Palworld – for fear of legal repercussions from Nintendo. But the modders are finding new (and very funny) ways
Modding Pikachu in PAlWorld was probably not a particularly clever idea. After all, Pokémon rights holder Nintendo isn’t exactly known for turning a blind eye when someone recreates or otherwise uses their content without permission.
Which shouldn’t be a legal problem at all: Pikachu not into Palworld. But instead a “legally distinguishable version” of an electric yellow rat. With such trickery, the modders want to keep the last word after their Pokémon mod recently had to be scrapped.
This is what the non-Pokémon mod looks like now
The legally-distinct pocket creatures mod pack changes the appearance of certain Pals and the game character (who wears a red and white cap, but certainly doesn’t want to be the very best, as no one before him was). You can still recognize very clearly which Pokémon was once meant – but the so-called “legally distinguishable pocket creatures” look different enough not to infringe Nintendo’s copyright, according to modders
Palworld itself has also often been criticized for being very closely oriented to the original. But no legal action has been taken so far, so there really do seem to be loopholes.
The YouTube channel ToastedShoes, for which the new mod was created, is behind the non-Pokémon campaign. You can find it at Nexusmods for download and here in the video you can see exactly how “different” the creatures now look:
The copyright issue is of course much more complex – it’s not for nothing that there are entire professions dedicated solely to copyright and its enforcement. The question of whether Palworld is copying Pokémon in a legally relevant way can probably only be answered by Nintendo’s highly specialized lawyers. No lawsuit has been filed to date. However, it is officially known that detailed checks are currently being carried out
