'Pokemon with guns’ Palworld insists it’s not a scam

With the recent rise of scam games, NFT-driven titles and just general disappointments based on over-promising and under-delivering, it is no surprise that developers are having to take extra steps to reassure people that their games are, in fact, real.

Palworld developer Pocket Pair has taken the need to reassure those waiting for the game's release to heart, going as far as to make a rather bizarre statement that they aren't scammers in the game's Steam FAQ.

Palworld isn't a scam, promises devs

Widely known as Pokemon with guns, it is no wonder that many people think that Palworld may be too good to be true.

The colourful survival game appears to be a mix of Pokemon, Fortnite, and Minecraft, giving it a surreal, dreamlike quality that feels almost too bizarre to be real, evidenced by "Is PalWorld real?" being one of the top results when you search "Is Palworld..." on Google.

For this reason, Palworld developer Pocket Pair has made sure to let players know that the game is not a scam, and will be releasing as expected on 19 January.

In their recent FAQ post, in answer to the question "Is this game a scam? Or is it a money-making MMO or virtual currency game?" Pocket Pair wrote: "It is not a scam and will definitely be released on January 19th...Palworld is a typical Steam game, you buy it once and it is yours forever.

"While we may consider expansions after the full release, that is a conversation we will all have together, as a community, when the time comes!"

There isn't much reason to believe that the game is a scam, especially since Xbox has paid to have the game come out as a day-one release on Game Pass. That said, some people are still finding it hard to believe that the game is actually real.

Gamers are having trouble believing that PalWorld is real

With the amount of interesting mechanics, edgy undertones, and clear inspiration from Pokemon, there is no wonder people are having trouble accepting that Palworld is real.

One Twitter user wrote: "Palworld still looks like a fake video game every time I look at it. For once I mean this in a positive way, but even looking at raw gameplay footage, I cannot believe this game is real. It really *is* just as unhinged as appearances suggest."

Another user said: "It looks like a fake edgy parody of Pokemon but clearly has real, weird ambition." Some are wary of the game as the developer's last project, Craftopia, has not made it out of early access.

Based on early reviews of Palworld, it seems that players generally like it. Thankfully, we won't have to wait to get our hands on it and find out if it really is as good as we want it to be, with Palworld being released on 19 January for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox X|S.