Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski, the mastermind behind Gears of War, expressed his thoughts on the remarkable success of Palworld, noting that it somewhat validates a pitch he had presented to Epic Games “many years ago.”
Taking to Twitter, Bleszinski revealed that he had proposed the concept of a “medieval Pokémon with baby dragons” to Epic, but the idea faced rejection from major publishers.
Well the dragon game was rejected at all the major publishers. And there was another project I started at Epic that was cancelled about a girl who could control the world at a molecular level – open world.
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) January 26, 2024
In response to a follower’s inquiry about Epic’s reaction to his pitch, Bleszinski simply stated, “It just… never went anywhere. I wanted to do it on mobile first.” When questioned about the possibility of revisiting the concept in light of Palworld’s triumph, Bleszinski hinted that the decision rested with Epic, as they own the overall idea.
Despite The Pokémon Company’s recent statement acknowledging an investigation into potential intellectual property infringement by Palworld, the game’s popularity among players remains unaffected.
Palworld achieved a significant milestone this week, surpassing two million concurrent players on Steam, making it the second game on the platform to achieve such a feat after PUBG. Furthermore, Palworld broke its own record for concurrent users, reaching a new peak of 2,033,118 players.
