Vortex Gaming

I decided to develop until my bank balance ran out. That was about 10 billion yen (9 billion won in our currency). And then'팰월드'was released and sold 7 million copies in 5 days. At 500,000, I thought, 'Oh? It's doing well,' but before I knew it, the maximum number of concurrent Steam users was 2 million. It's second only to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which similarly shocked the market and created the battle royale craze. The rate of increase is much faster than Battlegrounds.

The game is currently on sale for 28,800 won, a 10% discount, right? If you subtract the game price by country, the bundle cost for the soundtrack, and the fees, a simple calculation comes out to about 200 billion won. It's probably sold even more by the time you're reading this. It's another success story for a small-scale game, and to use a cliché, they're really sitting on a pile of money.

With such a hot response, everywhere you go, it's noisy with '팰월드' stories. Overseas news, communities, the interest is hot. If you play the game, you can definitely see why so many people enjoyed it. But I don't know if this game will be remembered as just 'a fun game'.

The various elements in '팰월드' are being mentioned within the expression of similarity. Plagiarism, imitation, inspiration, homage, etc., different interpretations can come out depending on what mindset and how it was made. In the midst of this, we can't just praise it as 'a survival fantasy that scratched the itchy parts of Pokémon' just because it sold well. Conversely, we shouldn't criticize the combination and success of the game due to such unconfirmed controversies, or we won't properly understand the impact the game has had on the market.

So, I want to look at both the inside and outside of the game called 팰월드 at the same time, and revisit the stories this game is giving to the market today.

① Perhaps the Pokémon that Pokémon fans really wanted

The power of the name Pokémon itself doesn't really need much more explanation. From its start, Pokémon caused a huge social phenomenon not only in Japan but all over the world. Movies, animations, etc., are still being released one after another. The core game is still being released as well.

'The graphics are bad, there's no development, the number of Pokémon has decreased,' etc., criticisms are voiced for each work, but still, each one easily surpasses 10 million copies. In fact, the developer Game Freak may not have had any reason to change the foundation. It means that there is a solid core fan base.

The Pals, similar to Pokémon, that '팰월드' has implemented are the various활용 방식that have not been added even as the Pokémon series has been repeated.

As it maintains the core of a third-person survival game, Pals are beings that run around in the open world, beyond turn-based battles where you and I take turns hitting each other. The events that you encounter in all real-time situations continue as they are without any special transitions. And within this, they made it so that Pals are given their own roles.

In the big framework of RPG, the role of Pokémon in Pokémon, which focuses on the battle itself, is concentrated on being strong and fighting well. Instead, Pals focus on the operation of the base within the survival game.

In addition to battles, Pals each have some of the 12 types of work suitability related to life content. You can assign them their roles in base growth with this. A Pal that makes fire lights the fire to melt ore into ingots, and a water-attribute Pal waters the seeded fields to grow food.

This use of Pals in productivity content is something that Pokémon couldn't do, but it's also something that Pokémon has been doing. In comics, animations, and movies, where the story is as important as the battle, Pokémon affect the world in more diverse ways. Like the troublemaker Squirtle Squad acting as firefighters to put out fires. These things mostly end as events or clearing blocked paths in the game.

팰월드 is giving the generations who grew up watching Pokémon stories the experiences that they haven't actually experienced in the game.

Pals are not only key to the battlefield but also to survival and expansion, so the desire to collect them is also high. The first is that you need to get Pals with various labor skills necessary for ultimate base growth because each one has different characteristics. And the second is that there are levels for each professional skill, so you have to find Pals who do their jobs better. Finally, the third way to increase the desire to collect is to find Pals that are optimized for combat or labor, even if they are the same Pal, because each one has different characteristics.

It's like adding Pokémon-like separate content to the existing survival game. And it greatly increased the methods of use that were lacking in Pokémon, greatly expanding the scope of the game.

② Pokémon that fans want, but Nintendo doesn't want

After the game was revealed, I was really curious about how they would refine the parts about Pals. How can you think of these cute Pals as just labor that you feed and use? It even contains content such as sales and butchering.

But impressively, rather than reversing the Pal utilization that 팰월드 emphasized before its release, it induced players to change their perceptions in-game. And various systems for that are unknowingly inducing such emotional changes. Perhaps this part seems like 팰월드 has unknowingly copied other survival games here and there, but I think it's the characteristic that most distinguishes the game within it.

It's been 8 years since Factorio introduced freshness by actively introducing the concept of automation systems into the game. Of course, many recent survival games with management concepts also have these automation systems. The rise in convenience factors has also improved so much that it's like picking your nose without using your hands compared to the past.

But this 팰월드 has quite a few convenience factors despite bringing in the characteristics of various games. You have to pick up the produced materials yourself after they are completed, and production is also made annoying by individual production one by one. In the early stages without Pals, I have to do this myself, so the words 'it's really annoying' just pop out.

And as you slowly expand your exploration area and acquire various Pals, these Pals will take over this annoyance. If you leave several items that need to be produced repeatedly on standby, Pals with related life skills will automatically make them, and they will automatically move the weapons or resources produced to the storage box.

In this process, Pals are naturally accepted as convenient labor that solves the annoyance systemically rather than as companions who go on adventures with me. In addition, some fast Pals greatly improve the frustrating movement speed when riding them, so their value as mounts also increases. As a result, you naturally look back on the usefulness and value of Pals. Unnecessary Pals can be disposed of through methods such as sales, abandonment, and butchering.

In fact, seeing these changes in perception, the Pokémon Company is not very happy with this popularity. Aside from the plagiarism controversy that I'll talk about later. It's so different compared to the direction that Pokémon is pursuing.

Pokémon in Pokémon maintains the classic RPG combatant framework that continues from Dragon Quest. It still takes on the role of a companion who follows the protagonist's story and goes into battle together or at the forefront within it. This core is still in the concept of collecting and growing.

팰월드 is not a continuing story due to the nature of the survival genre. It focused on surviving and growing in the world you create or in a multiplayer-only session itself. So, the direction of immersion is bound to be different, but the system is naturally driving you to adapt to this spicy atmosphere.

So, I expressed the relationship with Pals as a method of use rather than interaction or exchange earlier.

Also, even though adults enjoy Pokémon more, Nintendo is still doing business targeting all ages. In this situation, they can't emphasize as much freedom in the game as 팰월드, which includes the immorality unique to survival games in its freedom.

Of course, there will be no fans who will just overlook the deficiencies in the world composition itself that they have wanted for a long time just because the game's target audience is wide. Clearly, the success of 팰월드 can be a stimulus to the Pokémon side.

Of course, Pokémon itself has become a genre, with fans who delve deeply into specific models and generations. Of course, there is still a possibility that the main family will not apply this level of change in the future and will turn it into a spin-off like Arceus.

③ 크래프토피아2: 아크 브레스 오브 더 원신 몬스터

When the game was revealed in 2021, 팰월드 absorbed the meme of Pokémon with guns that was in North America as it was. The expression 'Pokémon with guns', which the 팰월드 developer Pocketpair seemed to have used as a slogan, also spread widely on Reddit, etc.

But at the time, Pocketpair didn't know the meme well. Rather, in an interview at the time, they mentioned other titles that influenced this game more than Pokémon. What came out of that was 'ARK: Survival Evolved' and 'Rust'.

Considering the current form of the survival game, it's a pretty natural mention. Especially the shortcomings in Ark. They made the element of being with monsters or dinosaurs more involved in the game, and that was expanded into the use of Pals. In addition, the freedom of 'Minecraft' and the police system of 'GTA' were also mentioned.

Anyway, if you actually play the game, you can easily see that the basic system of the survival part of this game is based on Ark. You raise your stats according to your level, collect resources to make equipment, and increase the number of crafting equipment you can make through engrams. From the overall growth method to the UI design and expansion, it mostly reminds you of Ark.

Of course, it's not just Ark, the art contains many features from the latest work of The Legend of Zelda, and the things from Genshin Impact that added features to it, and Rust, etc. in survival. In particular, the introduction of the area you meet at the beginning cannot help but be conscious of The Legend of Zelda.

But it's hard to see that Pocketpair combined all of these for the first time in 팰월드. Pocketpair's previous survival game, Craftopia, also brought in features from various games and drew them. Some were so similar that it was difficult to feel the individuality in the production.

크래프토피아 is still in early access. Rather than adding Pal concept content to 크래프토피아, Pocketpair changed its direction to the new 팰월드. In fact, they took their hands off the development of 크래프토피아 and started developing it anew, so there was a controversy over 'eating and running'.

Of course, the profits made through 크래프토피아 led to the development of 팰월드. Pocketpair didn't seem to have the development capacity to simultaneously add content to the new work and the existing work at the time. It's not uncommon for small and medium-sized game companies to choose and focus on one side like this.

So, there were concerns that the new work, which took all the characteristics of various foods, imitated them, and mixed them up, could be abandoned again. Of course, Pocketpair won't neglect game content development right away because it's been so successful. Right now, it's not a Pal to abandon, but a Pal with the highest level of productivity.

Also, the patchwork of various games in 팰월드 is closer to a delicious stew than the 잡탕 that 크래프토피아 showed. Rather than adding delicious ingredients to a 잡탕 with clear limitations, it was a newly boiled stew, and that was also one of the axes of its success.

④ Less Survival for Those Who Don't Know Survival, Those Who Are Tired

So, which of the two, the similarity with Pokémon and the survival game, had a greater impact on the actual performance of the game? What is certain is that the success of this game is not simply because it is a survival game based on the Pokémon skin. It didn't absorb all the users of the survival games that have been doing well recently.

Around January 19, when the game was released, the user trends of top-ranked survival games on Steam such as Rust, Terraria, 7 Days to Die, Project Zomboid, and Ark did not drop that much.

These games are all within the big framework of survival, but the way they solve the game is different. Games with systems similar to 팰월드, such as Rust and Ark, and even games with completely different game methods and productions, showed little noticeable decrease in users. Rather, some even showed an increase from the previous week after 팰월드.

In the end, it can be seen that users who were resting from survival games or users who were not enjoying survival games newly flowed into 팰월드. It can also be judged that users who did not adapt to this went back to playing their existing survival games.

So, if you say that this is simply 'because of the similarity with Pokémon?', it's difficult to say that it's 'only' because of that. It's because of the survival characteristics of this game.

The survival game itself is a genre that maintains the top ranks on Steam every time a new game appears. It can be said to be a popular and familiar genre to PC gamers. But on the other hand, in this competition, games are adding more realistic and diverse content. Not only hunting and gathering, but also the elements of construction and management are becoming more complex.

팰월드 may still lack convenience compared to representative survival games, but it is relatively easily configured. This may be because it is still in the early stages and less has been added, but the depth of content and the complexity of management have definitely been reduced. In fact, if a more advanced management system is intertwined with Pals in using Pals, there is a risk of becoming a complex system that is squared.

And from the distinction of items dropped when you die to the material drop ratio, damage, and experience acquisition, you can set the server to your liking in detailed parts. It's not just the server creation stage, but you can also modify it after creating the server.

Survival games actively encourage cooperative play to enhance the characteristics of surviving in a dangerous world. It's difficult to live alone, and the concept is to cooperate and overcome each other with their abilities. Instead, you need a player to be with, and if you don't have that, the fun will decrease along with the loneliness.

팰월드 also supports multiplayer, but you can easily adapt to the world thanks to various difficulty assistance systems. In addition, you can avoid the monotony of single-player because you do things that you can't do alone with Pals. Multiplayer is about challenging yourself in earnest after adapting with such easy single-player. Of course, if you don't have friends to play with, you can gradually increase the difficulty and do it with Pals. At the same time, the immersion and repetition unique to survival games are maintained as you go to the later stages.

As I said earlier, it must have been right that fans who were dissatisfied with the relatively lighter survival grammar went back to enjoying hardcore survival games.

Of course, it's true that the name of Pokémon that everyone is talking about attracts initial interest in 팰월드. And the fact that it made it easy to feel the fun of the popular genre of survival games here. The complex reasons such as word-of-mouth and the name being posted on the community are the big reasons why new players continue to be added to 팰월드.

The Pals that remind you of Pokémon and the easy survival game each played a role in the success of 팰월드.

Of course, now that the game is doing so well that it has broken down the walls of genre and IP distinction, there may be no need to argue about what is more important.

⑤ 의혹에 AI 이용 의혹 남아 VS 소규모 게임 성공을 시기하는 행위

Even in this game's success, the suspicions about the game are not easily subsiding. The plagiarism controversy is at the heart of it.

As I said earlier, the basic system and UI of the game are so similar that you can't help but think of Ark and Rust. The capture equipment and system that you write as Pal Sphere and read as Monster Ball are also almost the same as Pokémon. Of course, there are many arguments that such similarities are slightly outside the concept of copyright, so they cannot be easily legally sanctioned.

However, suspicions that many of the game's modeling were not only inspired by Pokémon but were extracted and copied have also been raised since its release. In a video released by a user on X, he pointed out that the composition of the mesh, which is a collection of various polygons, is very similar.

Two AAA development veterans who were interviewed anonymously by VGC pointed out that this modeling comparison video can be seen as evidence that 팰월드's characters are actually based on Pokémon's assets. They said that this same ratio is impossible unless the model was taken from it, and they are ready to stand in court to testify if necessary. They thought that it was made by taking Pokémon's data.

Don McGowan, a former Pokémon Company legal team member who interviewed with Game File, also criticized 팰월드's behavior. He, who led the Pokémon-related legal team for about 12 years until 2020, expressed Palworld as 'the nonsense of a common plagiarist that I saw a thousand times a year' based on his tenure. And he expressed that he was surprised by the current situation where it was officially released without any sanctions.

In addition, many users pointed out the similarity between Pals and Pokémon online. And it's taking on an overheated aspect. In response, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe asked people to stop slandering the artists through SNS. He also appealed that he is in charge of managing various productions related to 팰월드, and he is also responsible for them. The community manager also said that there are threats of murder and harm to developers or the company itself.

Also, the modeling comparison video of the previous user was also pointed out that there was some editing. It means that they adjusted the scale, that is, the size and ratio, to make it similar. Some argue that this editing is a malicious lie against 팰월드. Others argue that the theft itself does not change, even if the ratio is different.

On the other hand, experts who point out that there is no proper basis for the modeling similarity allegations claimed by several artists are also coming forward one by one.

Anyway, there is no official movement from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, but a third party is pointing out these similarities first. And on the 25th, they finally accepted various opinions and announced that they would take appropriate measures regarding the similarity controversy. Of course, they didn't mention 팰월드 directly. Considering that they had already blocked the Pokémon mode for 팰월드 early on, it seems that they are targeting 팰월드 itself rather than the various modes that have already been blocked. Even so, they have no intention of allowing IP utilization, and their position is more focused on protecting IP rather than direct response.

Another suspicion is the use of generative AI. This is not limited to the suspicion of Pokémon design plagiarism itself, but the CEO of Pocketpair's constant remarks have been added to it, making the fire even bigger.

It means that AI may have learned Pokémon's Pokémon and created Pals similar to them.

In the meantime, CEO Mizobe has consistently made positive remarks about the use of generative AI. He has repeatedly shared similar Pokémon images created by representative generative AI such as Dall-E. Furthermore, in 2022, he expressed his opinion that he believes that AI can develop so sophisticatedly that it can avoid copyright issues.

The fact that Pocketpair's latest work before 팰월드 is 'AI: Art Imposter', which distinguishes liars with AI-generated art, also fueled such suspicions. As an aside, there were criticisms that the character design at the beginning of the release was reminiscent of Among Us, like the name Imposter. However, the criticism that it was using unauthorized art with generative AI without permission grew larger and was covered up.

Also, the developer history released through the blog became a problem. He said that it took a month for one 3D model to create a Pal, but he solved this by recruiting a new motion designer. He solved the problem of development speed, and in the process, a 'new production method' is mentioned.

Of course, these suspicions are still close to speculation. Valve recently changed the rules on Steam to require games with AI-generated assets to disclose AI-generated content. 팰월드 does not include this content. Also, in an interview with Automaton, CEO Mizobe said that he has no intention of infringing on other companies' intellectual property rights and has undergone legal review. He said that there were no specific measures taken by other companies.

However, the suspicion that AI was used to the extent that there would be no legal problems is still coming out because there is no specific expression that AI was not used. Adding to the above past remarks that AI may be able to solve copyright issues, there is also an opinion that AI was intentionally not included in Steam.

This AI utilization controversy is based on the generative AI that has recently hit the industry and the antipathy to it. However, some argue that uncertain AI suspicions and excessive attacks should be stopped. This is not just to argue that it is not AI. Rather, it is because the explanation for the modeling similarity allegations mentioned above and the imitation elements that are similar to Ark, etc., which anyone can see, are being pushed to the back burner because of the AI controversy.

On the other hand, there is also an argument that the act of repeatedly raising suspicions even though there is no evidence and the developer has come forward to explain is nothing more or less than online harassment.

In particular, after the success of Baldur's Gate 3, AAA game developers who left their opinions on the success were also summoned again. At the time, some developers argued that Baldur's Gate 3 was a unique product that came out of an abnormal development environment. The jealousy of a game that is doing well. That is happening even more with the success of Palworld this time, and it is harassing a small game company worldwide.

There is also an opinion that it is impossible to build that level of modeling with the current AI technology.

What is certain is that as much as the game's great success, suspicions that were not deeply pointed out until before its release and that cannot be confirmed yet are breaking out more aggressively.

⑥ What the success of 팰월드 may change

If it had ended with a mediocre success, it might not have burned so fiercely. But the really great success has suggested the possibility of new content to many survival game developers. Just as battle royale did, you can also think about the proliferation of survival games with creatures. It is showing such a great ripple effect.

Looking further away, industry trends are also being detected. It is an open secret that many companies considered investing in Pocketpair early on. Among them, MS, which has financial power, took the lead and put the game in Game Pass and worked together from the early access stage. In response to fans' words wishing for the PS release of the PC and Xbox release news, indie division head Shuhei Yoshida said 'はい〜', expressing his positive meaning. He also left a congratulatory reply to the SNS post that exceeded 2 million.

Although it is a game with similarity controversy with Nintendo's representative franchise, both representative platform holders Xbox and Sony did not hide that they are eyeing the great success. Nintendo will have a headache about how to solve the current problem.

From Nintendo's point of view, they may have reconfirmed users' needs for the positive direction that the Pokémon franchise should take. The shortcomings that have not met expectations have always been pointed out. The Pokémon Company's response announcement also came out at the level of directly investigating and protecting the controversy rather than simply ignoring the problematic parts.

Valve's name is also mentioned. In the past, Activision removed the early access of the game 'Orion' from Steam based on DMCA because it illegally used assets from Call of Duty. At the time, the developer denied the allegations, but as a result of further confirmation, it was discovered that an artist had actually included the assets. If this situation occurs, Valve may remove the game from Steam before hearing Pocketpair's opinion. The key to solving the problem is passed on to Valve.

It's an extreme example, but it's still uncertain to what extent the various suspicions of 팰월드 will continue and be resolved. It means that they took the risk of having to endure various suspicions because it had similarities with so many games. To put it differently, it means that they are being swayed by more controversy than necessary despite being confident.

Furthermore, this incident can be an opportunity to continue the discussion on plagiarism, theft, and imitation, which are still ambiguous, more deeply. In the game industry, where the use of generative AI is actively discussed, there is also a need for movement in this regard. In fact, companies that occupy more than 90% of the digital camera market, such as Nikon, Sony, and Canon, have recently joined forces to actively develop technologies and share tools to prove AI images.

As much as the usefulness of AI technology, it is time to talk about the need to clearly reveal whether the technology used legal learning materials and how AI technology was applied.

That way, those who used AI can proudly reveal it, and companies that don't can avoid being swayed by AI utilization suspicions.

팰월드, which achieved great success at the beginning of 2024, is giving fun to many people as the numbers show. But rather than that, it is a question of how far the core of the game, fun, can be seen by players as allowing the developer to do anything. Also, if the developer is innocent in the controversy of theft and imitation, how can they effectively prove it? 팰월드의 is now in a situation that is more suitable for the title of 'a game that has once again ignited several issues that should be discussed for years to come'.

Because of the current situation, it is a pity that we cannot fully enjoy the value of the success of a small game company in 2024, or the fastest-selling game in Steam history, with a fun game and only the story of that game.

웹진 인벤강승진 기자
2024-01-25