Palworld Communications Director Speaks on Generative AI Controversy, Online Struggles, and Why Palworld Is Misunderstood

At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last month, we had the opportunity to sit down with John "Bucky" Buckley, communications director and publishing manager for Palworld developer Pocketpair. This conversation followed his insightful talk at the conference titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop,' where he candidly discussed the challenges Palworld faced, including accusations of using generative AI and copying Pokémon models, both of which have been debunked. Buckley also touched on the unexpected patent infringement lawsuit from Nintendo, describing it as a "shock" to the studio.

Our discussion with Buckley provided deep insights into Pocketpair's community management struggles and successes. For those interested in shorter summaries, you can find Buckley's thoughts on the potential release of Palworld on the Nintendo Switch 2, the studio's reaction to the "Pokémon with guns" label, and whether Pocketpair would ever consider being acquired at the following links.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity:

IGN: I'm going to get the really annoying one that I know you can't really answer out of the way first. You talked so, so lightly about the lawsuit in your GDC talk. Has that lawsuit made it harder for Pocketpair to move forward and update the game, having that still pending?

John Buckley: No, it hasn't made it harder to update the game or to move forward. It's just something that weighs over us constantly. It affects the company's morale more than anything else. Of course, lawyers have to be involved, but it hasn't impacted the actual development process.

IGN: Okay, real conversation time. I was fascinated at the start of your talk when you talked about, sort of cheekily, the 'Pokémon with guns' moniker. I was surprised that you didn't seem to like that. Can I ask why?

Buckley: A lot of people don't believe us when we say this, but that label was never our goal. We aimed to create something akin to ARK: Survival Evolved with more automation and unique creature personalities. The 'Pokémon with guns' tag came after our first trailer, and while we weren't thrilled about it, it's become part of the game's identity.

IGN: You said in the talk that you didn't understand why Palworld took off the way it did, you couldn't explain it. And I'm not a market analyst, so I certainly couldn't tell you, but I do feel like I specifically remember when "Pokémon with guns" came into the conversation.

Buckley: Yeah, that was definitely a big factor. It fueled a lot of interest, but it's frustrating when people assume that's all the game is without playing it. We encourage everyone to give it a try before forming an opinion.

IGN: Well, how would you have phrased it? What would've been your "moniker" for this?

Buckley: I probably would've called it, "Palworld: It's kind of like ARK if ARK met Factorio and Happy Tree Friends." It doesn't quite roll off the tongue the same way, though.

IGN: Another thing that you brought up in the talk were the criticisms people made saying the game was AI slop. How did that impact folks internally at Pocketpair?

Buckley: It impacted us massively. It's particularly upsetting for our artists, especially the Pal concept artists who have been with us since the beginning. We've tried to counter these claims, but it's challenging when our team prefers to stay out of the public eye, particularly our female artists in Japan.

IGN: We are having this industry-wide conversation about generative AI and generative AI art, and people think that they're really good at spotting it, and you can't always. If something has seven weird fingers, it's probably pretty obvious, but less so in other cases, right?

Buckley: A lot of the arguments against us are based on misinterpretations, like comments our CEO made about AI. Additionally, our open development model and a party game we developed called AI: Art Imposter were misconstrued as endorsements of AI, which they were not.

IGN: What's your overall take on the state of, not your community specifically, but online gaming communities in general? You're talking about getting all that harassment and stuff, is social media broadly useful for you all anymore?

Buckley: Social media is crucial for us, especially in our primary Asian markets where it's a way of life. Online gaming communities can be intense, and while we understand the emotional reactions, the death threats we've received are particularly hard to handle. We spend 12 hours a day working on the game, and these threats are deeply upsetting.

IGN: Do you feel like social media is trending worse lately?

Buckley: There's a trend where some accounts gain notoriety by taking opposing views for clicks and attention. Luckily, Palworld has mostly avoided political and social controversies, focusing more on gameplay-related feedback.

IGN: I thought it was really interesting in your talk that you said that the majority of the heat came from the Western audience. I guess I just assumed it would be equal across the board. Do you have any insight as to why that was?

Buckley: We're quite divisive in Japan, but the intense reactions, including death threats, were predominantly in English. Maybe it was just easier to target us at the time, but it's calmed down significantly now.

Palworld Screens

17 Images

IGN: So Palworld was extremely successful, and I get the sense, perhaps in a way that was maybe unexpected for you all based on your talk. Has that changed anything about how the studio runs or what your future plans are or anything else?

Buckley: It's changed our future plans, but not how the studio operates. We're hiring more developers and artists to speed up development, but our culture remains unchanged. Our CEO wants to keep the studio relatively small, despite our growth to 70 people.

IGN: You knew it was a good game, but you didn't know that it was going to be this big.

Buckley: A million sales for an indie game is a huge success, but reaching tens of millions is surreal. It's hard to grasp, and it changes how we manage resources and plan future projects.

IGN: Do you anticipate that Palworld is something that Pocketpair is going to support for a really, really long time to come?

Buckley: Palworld isn't going anywhere. We're exploring different trajectories for the game and the IP, but we're also committed to other projects like Craftopia. We want to balance supporting Palworld with developing new games.

IGN: Yeah. You talked about that partnership that everybody misunderstood.

Buckley: Yeah, no one understands. People still think we're owned by Sony, which we're not. Our CEO would never allow the studio to be acquired; he values independence.

IGN: I know we talked earlier about the Palworld comparisons to a Pokémon, and that you actually feel it's more like ARK. ARK is not actively releasing brand new games every one to two years and has an anime and merch like the way Pokémon does, but Pokémon is gearing up. They've got a release this year. They're constantly doing stuff. Do you see that being competitive in any way or meaningfully impacting you all?

Buckley: I don't think the audiences cross over that much. The systems are completely different. We don't see ourselves in direct competition with Pokémon or ARK; we focus more on timing and our own game's development.

IGN: Would you ever release on the Switch?

Buckley: If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game. As for the Switch 2, we're waiting to see the specs like everyone else. If it's powerful enough, it's definitely worth considering.

IGN: My big takeaway from your talk is that outside of the existing Palworld community of people who have played and enjoyed the game, you feel that Palworld is extremely misunderstood.

Buckley: Yeah, 100%.

IGN: What is your singular takeaway message for people who have not played it and you think misunderstand it?

Buckley: I think a lot of people who only know Palworld from the news and drama misunderstand what the game is. We should release a demo at some point to let people experience it for themselves. We're not as "seedy and scummy" as some think; we're just a small company trying to do well by our team and our players.

IGN: That’s also just the way the internet works. Whatever other things there are to do in Palworld, what’s funny is a meme video of what is effectively distilled down to Pokémon with guns. So that's what everyone's sharing.

Buckley: Last year was a crazy year for games, with many achieving unprecedented success. Emotions were high, and people got swept away in the excitement. We hope to continue doing well and maintain our integrity as a studio.