Nexus Mods Refuses to Host Palworld Pokemon Mods Out of Fear of Legal Action From Nintendo

24.01.2024 - 17:21 / ign.com / Nintendo

Nexus Mods will not host Pokemon mods for Palworld out of a fear of legal action from Nintendo.

Speaking to PCGamesN, Nexus Mods community lead Mathew Elliott said the platform is “not comfortable” hosting Pokemon mods for the phenomenally successful Palworld, but will allow other mods for the game.

Nexus Mods’ stance stems from a fear of potential legal action from Nintendo, Elliott said. “As you may know, Nintendo (who jointly own the Pokemon franchise) has a consistent record of mercilessly submitting legal challenges, DMCAs, and takedowns against fan-made content,” Elliott pointed out.

“Given Palworld’s similarity to the Pokemon franchise as a base game, hosting content that adds copyrighted characters or assets into the game is almost certainly going to put us at risk of legal action.

“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.

“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. We’re really excited to see what the Palworld modding community comes up with.”

While Palworld is already one of the biggest game launches ever, it’s also one of the most controversial. Pocketpair has said its staff have received death threats amid Pokémon "rip-off" claims, and Nintendo has moved quickly to take down an eye-catching Pokémon mod, although its creator insists he still plans to release it for free.

IGN’s early access review of Palworld on Steam returned an 8/10. We said: “Palworld may crib quite a bit from Pokémon’s homework, but deep survival mechanics and a hilarious attitude make it hard to put down – even in Early Access.”

It's early days for Palworld, of course, but already there are a number of mods on Nexus Mods, with the most popular letting players tweak gameplay, enhance the visuals, and unlock the entire map. And yes, there's a PlayStation buttons mod, too.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].