Palworld has kicked off a messy but fascinating debate on animal cruelty in games

polygon.com:

Palworld, the survival game where you recruit adorable Pokémon-like creatures and send them to fight or work, has been out for four days and is already a massive hit. On Monday morning, the Early Access version of the game reached over 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam, making it the most-played game on the platform and marking the third highest number of concurrent players on the platform of all time. The statistic doesn’t even include players who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass, meaning its overall active player base is likely much larger. According to its developer, Pocketpair, the game sold over 5 million copies in three days.

The buzz has turned Pocketpair into an overnight sensation. But Palworld’s release has brought its fair share of controversy that goes beyond the fact that it’s clearly riffing on Pokémon. If you remain on the outside of the Palworld phenomenon (and subsequent shitstorm), here’s how it’s all going down.

Palworld caught the attention of Steam wishlisters months ago with a catchy premise: What if Pokémon had guns? But the game’s popularity upon release goes beyond its somewhat jokey pitch. As players discovered on Friday and into the weekend, Palworld blends gameplay elements from a variety of extremely popular games. To start, it’s a survival sim, following in the footsteps of Minecraft, Raft, Valheim, and Sons of the Forest. Then it adds the not-Pokémon.

For years, older Pokémon fans have asked for more mature versions of the game, but The Pokémon Company has stuck to releasing kid-friendly games. In the past, other games have tried to satisfy fans’ desire for a fresh take on Pokémon; Temtem, for example, allows players to experience Pokémon-like gameplay elements in a MMORPG setting. These past attempts never blew up, with player bases falling off after strong initial interest. Palworld’s popularity could follow a similar trajectory, but it does cater to the demand on the part some older Pokémon fans seeking an “adult”