While Palworld itself had faced comparisons to Pokémon and even a lawsuit from Nintendo after its January 2024 launch, Pickmon takes the resemblance further, featuring monster designs, environments, and gameplay elements that feel directly lifted from those prior games—leading some to speculate whether AI was used in its creation.
Pocketpair publishing lead John “Bucky” Buckley reacted to the new game Pickmon, which debuted a trailer at GDC 2026 and looks like a mash-up of Palworld, Pokémon, and Breath of the Wild, with a mix of amusement and curiosity. Despite the obvious similarities to Palworld and other franchises, Buckley called it “very good, very good, very clever,” though the tone suggested he might have been feigning enthusiasm while assessing just how much of an imitation it really was.