Palworld developer Pocketpair has reported a brazen clone of its hit ‘Pokémon with guns’ game to Apple after it started appearing in search.
‘PalWorld’ is available to pre-order in the UK App Store at the time of writing, and is the second result when you search the game’s title.
Its developer appears to have lifted Palworld assets wholesale for the game’s in-store screenshots, and is listed as ‘Oleksandra Kryvcun’. The developer does not have any other games live on the App Store currently. The game’s provider is ‘Blue Ridge Gutter Cleaning LLC’.
At the time of writing, a search of the Google Play store does not surface any Palworld clones. We have contacted Apple for comment and will update this story if we receive any reply.
[UPDATE: Apple has seemingly removed the game, several hours after we alerted its PR representatives to this story.]
Posting on Palworld’s official English-language X feed, PocketPair said: “There is no Palworld application for phones. Apps using names and product images such as “パルワールド” and “Palworld” are appearing on the AppStore and Google Play, but they are not affiliated with our company in any way.”
“We have reported this issue to Apple, which operates the App Store, and Google, which operates Google Play.”
“Please be aware that downloading these apps may lead to the leakage of personal information stored on your smartphone or to fraud.”
Palworld is one of the biggest games in the world right now, a survival game often described as ‘Pokémon with guns’.
The appearance of a mobile clone is perhaps no surprise, but comes at a bad time for Apple in particular, having made a multitude of statements recently about the safety and security of its App Store. It recently revealed new App Store policies in the US and EU after legislators ruled Apple must open it up to greater competition.
As we reported earlier this week, many mobile game leaders are unhappy about Apple’s proposed solutions to new EU laws, in particular.
