Nexus Mods says hosting Pokémon-themed Palworld mods ‘is almost certainly going to put us at risk of legal action’

techradar.com:

Popular modding siteNexus Mods, which allows users to share and download mods for thousands of games, has confirmed that it’s “not comfortable” with hosting Pokémon-themed mods for Palworld, Pocketpair’s early-access survival and crafting game.

In a statement sent to TechRadar Gaming, Nexus Mods said that “hosting content that adds copyrighted characters or assets into the game is almost certainly going to put us at risk of legal action,” especially “given Palworld's similarity to the Pokémon franchise as a base game.”

Despite thinking that “adding Pokémon content to Palworld is a very cool idea and we understand why people would want such a thing,” the website’s team is “not comfortable hosting this content at Nexus Mods.”

Continuing, the statement says: “We don’t think it's worth the risk to allow this content to be shared in our community. At best we would have to deal with the headache of DMCA/legal threats from Nintendo and at worst they may seek to take action against us and uploaders of the mods directly.”

Wrapping up the statement, Nexus Mods noted that “there are many creative opportunities to explore mods for this game that add to the world and gameplay, but do not infringe on existing IP so obviously.” It added: “We're really excited to see what the Palworld modding community comes up with.”

Comparisons to Pokémon have been made ever since Palworld was first revealed — many fans call it ‘Pokémon with guns’ since, yes, the cute creatures can wield guns and be shot with them in the game. However, in a recent interview,Palworld’s producer and the CEO of developer Pocketpair, Takuro Mizobe, said that the developers “have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies.” 

If you’re just starting out in Palworld, be sure to take a look at our guides for how to get Palworld Leather , Palworld Wheat , and Palworld Nails .