Gears of War creator Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski says Palworld’s astonishing success “kinda validates” a pitch he’d made to Epic “many years ago”.
In a post shared to Twitter/X, Bleszinski said he took the idea of “medieval Pokémon with baby dragons instead” to Epic, but the idea was “rejected at all the major publishers”.
When asked by a curious follower what Epic said when Bleszinski made the pitch, he simply said: “It just… never went anywhere. I wanted to do it on mobile first”.
Asked if he would consider reviving the idea in light of Palworld’s success, Bleszinski intimated that the decision wasn’t down to him as “Epic owns the overall idea”
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Palworld's success kinda validates my pitch that was turned down at Epic many years ago – medieval Pokémon with baby dragons instead.
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) January 25, 2024
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
Earlier this week, The Pokémon Company issued a statement confirming it was now “investigating” whether Palworld has infringed its intellectual property rights.
Not that that has dampened enthusiasm for Palworld among players, of course. Yesterday saw Palworld’s Steam concurrent numbers pass two million for the first time, making Palworld the second game ever on Steam to do so after PUBG. It also once again broke its own concurrent user record overnight, hitting a new high of 2,033,118 concurrent players.
