Palworld developer Pocketpair has addressed the rampant cheating that is affecting the ‘Pokemon with guns’ survival and crafting game, and outlined a number of steps it’s taking to try to combat the problem.
In a statement, Pocketpair confirmed that some Palworld players are currently unable to connect to official servers due to cheating “and the influence of fraudulent activities.” “We have confirmed that some players are unable to play the game properly,” Pocketpair continued.
“As a company, we do not tolerate any fraudulent activity or cheating, and we are working on measures to deal with it strictly and as a priority.”
Cheating has been an issue for Palworld ever since its explosive launch on PC and Xbox Series X and S earlier this year. Xyrem, from video game cheat prevention organization the Anti-Cheat Police Department, told IGN that Palworld cheats “have been kind of exploding as there are a lot of people who are interested in cheating”.
That doesn’t come as a surprise given Palworld’s incredible launch success — it’s sold an incredible 12 million copies on Steam, and is the biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever.
According to Xyrem, Palworld does not have an anti-cheat system in place. “Everything is client authoritative,” Xyrem continued. “Meaning most things you do inside the game are done via the client, the server does not check for any of these things. So for example, you can spawn items, manipulate your player’s speed, damage, health, etc..”
Xyrem recommended Pocketpair change the way the game works so the client interacts with game items, and “make it work on the server side to reduce things that can be exploited to cheat.” “It’s just fixing a bunch of things to be non replicable in the client and make the server the authority to deal with replicating things to other clients.”
Palworld is currently a player versus environment (PvE) only game, but Pocketpair has player versus player (PvP) planned for the future. Xyrem said it’s important for the developer to get on top of cheating now so it’s not out of hand before PvP is added to the game.
Outlining its plan of attack, Pocketpair said it will release a player list function for servers in an update at the end of February. “Through this, we will strengthen the identification of players who engage in cheating and the suspension of their use by the development team,” the developer said.
Then, Pocketpair will introduce an external anti-cheat solution “to take measures against particularly frequent fraudulent activities and cheating.” Pocketpair failed to namecheck the anti-cheat solution it plans to add to the game, but did say that in the case of community servers, single player, and co-op, the use of this function is optional.
“In addition to the above measures, we will continue to take thorough measures against further cheating and fraudulent activities,” Pockpair said, before admitting it faces an uphill battle to stay on top of the problem.
“Although the development team is dealing with each issue on a daily basis and taking measures, there are many cases where we are not able to keep up, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” Pocketpair said.
“Our entire team is working hard to get everyone back to a state where they can enjoy the game comfortably and with peace of mind as soon as possible.
“Thank you for your continued support.”
This week, Pocketpair commented on the debate around the declining number of people playing Palworld since launch, calling the discourse “lazy”.
Taking to Twitter/X, Pocketpair community manager Bucky, who has become the voice of Palworld’s development team in the West, reflected on the game’s first month since going on sale in early access form.
“In May of 2023, I was convinced that Palworld could break the 50,000 player mark,” Bucky said. “Anything above that seemed unobtainable though, and I certainly never expected it to reach into the millions.
“It has taken years to get to this point, and Palworld only really begins from here. Everyone is working hard to fix the issues and prepare new content and Pals. Some of you may have had your fun over the last three weeks and found yourself putting the game down. That is fine.”
Clearly, the success of Palworld has taken Pocketpair — and the video game industry — by surprise, so much so that the developer has issued a recruitment drive, saying it’s “overwhelmingly short of people”.
While Palworld is one of the biggest game launches ever, it’s also one of the most controversial. Pocketpair has said its staff have received death threats amid Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied. Soon after launch, Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue.
If you’re playing, be sure to check out IGN’s interactive Palworld map.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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