While the game already has more than 19 million players (12 million on Steam, 7 million on Xbox), Pocket Pair warns us not to get too interested in possible Android and iOS versions…

The Japanese studio has taken to Twitter to point out that many fake apps have appeared on Google and Apple’s digital platforms, and that they have nothing to do with them: “Warning: there is no Palworld application for mobile phones.Apps with names and product images such as “パルワールド” and “Palworld” are appearing in the App Store and Google Play, but they are in no way related to our company. 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 could result in the exposure of personal information stored on your smartphone or fraud,” Pocket Pair wrote.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. If something is a huge success, a fake copy on mobile is almost guaranteed. Sometimes they succeed. Werewolf Among Us, a copy of Among Us, became a hit in China in 2020, partly because Among Us didn’t have a Chinese localization. But this is an exception that proves the rule: most of the time it’s lazy, crappy stuff that only annoys and demoralizes the developers of the original works.

The case of Palworld is a bit ironic, though, since Pocketpair’s game is heavily inspired by Pokémon (even The Pokémon Company threatened it without mentioning its name…), although the use of weapons and slave labor play a significant role here. On the other hand, taking Palworld’s name and official artwork one by one is just plain cheeky. So it’s best to ignore all these mobile apps, because if they’re just data-stealing asset flips, there’s nothing to be gained and the fake developers get money from advertising.

At least we know what (not) to expect.

Source: PCGamer