Palworld Director Clarifies AI Controversy, Online Challenges, and Misconceptions

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At last month’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), we had the opportunity to sit down with John “Bucky” Buckley, communications director and publishing manager at Palworld developer Pocketpair, for an in-depth conversation.

This interview followed his session titled “Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop,” where Buckley candidly discussed some of the major challenges faced by the studio—particularly the false claims that Palworld used generative AI in its development (a claim Pocketpair has strongly refuted) and accusations of copying Pokémon designs (a statement later retracted by the originator). He also briefly touched on Nintendo’s patent infringement lawsuit against the company, calling it a complete surprise to the team.

We’ve previously covered highlights from our conversation with Buckley, including topics like the potential for Palworld on the Nintendo Switch 2, Pocketpair’s response to being labeled “Pokémon with guns,” and whether the company would ever consider acquisition. However, due to the depth and value of Buckley’s insights into community management and public perception, we’re now sharing the full extended interview.

IGN: I’ll start with the big question you probably can’t answer directly. Has the ongoing Nintendo lawsuit made it harder for Pocketpair to update Palworld?

John Buckley: Not at all. It hasn’t hindered game updates or slowed development in any way. It’s more of a psychological weight hanging over the company. Everyone thinks about it constantly, but it hasn’t impacted our ability to push updates. The main effect has been on morale. Naturally, legal representation has to be involved, but that’s handled at the executive level—we don’t deal with that day-to-day. So, development continues as normal.

Let’s get into something more conversational. You mentioned during your talk that you weren’t thrilled with the “Pokémon with guns” label. Why does that bother you?

Buckley: People often assume that phrase was part of the original pitch for Palworld, like it was written on a whiteboard before development started. But that’s not true. Our goal was always to create something akin to ARK: Survival Evolved, but with more automation and stronger personality in each creature. Many of us are huge ARK fans, and our earlier title Craftopia included elements we loved from ARK. We wanted to expand on those ideas—make them bigger, more expressive, and more dynamic.

When the first trailer dropped, people started using that nickname, and while it stuck, it wasn’t something we embraced. It's catchy, sure, but it doesn’t really reflect what the game is about. If anything, it misrepresents it.

You said in your talk that you were surprised by how quickly Palworld took off. Did the “Pokémon with guns” angle play a role in that initial buzz?

Buckley: Absolutely. That phrase definitely fueled the fire. Dave Oshry even trademarked Pokemonwithguns.com, which helped spread the idea further. While we understand why it caught on, what bothers us most is when people assume that’s exactly what the game is—without actually playing it. We’d love for people to try the game before jumping to conclusions.

If you could choose a moniker for Palworld, what would it be?

Buckley: Maybe something like Palworld: It’s ARK meets Factorio and Happy Tree Friends. It’s not quite as catchy, though.

Not quite a headline grabber, huh?

Buckley: Definitely not. Probably why it never caught on.

Another topic you addressed was the backlash claiming Palworld was created using AI-generated content. How did that affect the team internally?

Buckley: It hit us incredibly hard—more than anything else we’ve faced. You go onto Reddit or any forum and see comments like, “I hate this company, they use AI,” and it’s just completely false. It hurts, especially the artists who work so hard on every detail. Two of our core concept artists have been with us since day one—they take these accusations the hardest.

The issue is, there’s no easy way to fight back. Ideally, you’d put everyone on camera to show the human side of the studio, but most of our team, particularly our female artists in Japan, prefer to stay out of the spotlight. It’s difficult, but we’ve tried different approaches—like releasing an art book—to prove our process is 100% handcrafted. It helped, but not as much as we hoped.

There’s a larger industry debate around AI detection. Some believe they can spot AI-generated art instantly, but others aren’t so sure. What’s your perspective?

Buckley: I think many of the arguments against us are pretty weak, especially considering the origins of the claims. A lot of it traces back to a 2020–2021 Kotaku article quoting our CEO saying “Sugoi”—which means amazing—but he wasn’t endorsing AI; he was just acknowledging its existence. Then there was the game AI: Art Imposter, developed by some members of Pocketpair. It’s a party game involving AI image generation, but people interpreted it as a sign that we support AI tools. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Still, once a narrative takes hold online, it’s nearly impossible to change.

What’s your general view on today’s gaming communities and the role of social media in connecting with players?

Buckley: Social media is essential for us, especially since our games perform well in Asian markets like Japan and China, where platforms like Twitter and TikTok dominate user engagement. Globally, though, it’s a mixed bag. Gaming communities can be passionate, but sometimes emotions run too high. Death threats, personal attacks—it’s shocking how far some people will go.

I used to play competitive MMOs, so I understand frustration. Bugs happen. Patches break things. But threatening someone because of it? That’s just irrational. And it hits hard when you spend 12 hours a day building and fixing the game—only to read someone say they want to kill you. It’s surreal.

Do you feel like social media is getting worse lately?

Buckley: Definitely. There’s a growing trend of people taking contrarian stances just to provoke reactions. Big accounts jump on unpopular opinions because it gets attention. Luckily, Palworld has mostly avoided that kind of politicized discourse. Most of the criticism we receive relates to bugs or technical issues—which is fair and expected.

In your talk, you noted that most of the negativity came from Western audiences. Any idea why that might be?

Buckley: Honestly, we don’t know. In Japan, it’s split—half love us, half hate us. But the majority of harassment comes from English-speaking regions. Maybe we were an easy target early on. Over time, things have calmed down significantly.

Palworld Screens

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Palworld’s success was massive—did that change how Pocketpair operates or shape your future plans?

Buckley: It changed our future direction, yes, but not the studio itself. We remain largely the same.

Did you expand the team at all?

Buckley: Yes, especially in areas like servers, developers, and artists. One of our biggest challenges is delivering updates faster to meet fan demand. We’re hiring more talent to speed up development, but our culture stays indie. Our CEO prefers to keep things small—around 70 people right now—and avoid scaling into the hundreds.

You knew Palworld was a good game, but not that it would become this successful?

Buckley: Exactly. A million sales for an indie game is huge. Two million is incredible. Ten million? That’s beyond comprehension. Steam sends us reports filled with numbers that don’t even make sense anymore. At that point, you start spending differently—not recklessly, but with more freedom. It’s a surreal