A new Palworld update has included a change not mentioned in the patch notes, and fans are already crying foul.
It's been fascinating watching Palworld since it launched earlier this year. While our reviewer had plenty of fun with the Pokémon-inspired survival game, it's been lathered in controversy from the beginning. Yes, the game is attracting record numbers of players, but there are also rumblings that Nintendo could turn around and take legal action at any time. Unprecedented scenes.
Until such time as Nintendo does throw Palworld into the fiery pits of litigation hell (which I must stress might not and probably won't ever actually happen), developer Pocketpair is continuing to release small updates for the game.
Of course I probably don't need to tell you, dear reader, that releasing updates for an incredibly popular new game is like trying to take a piss into a turbine engine. Whatever you do, you're going to piss on somebody, and they won't be happy. Unless they're into that, I guess. But even then there'll be someone else watching nearby who could do without seeing you have a piddle party. What was I actually talking about again?
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Oh yeah, a new change added in the most recent Palworld update has managed to annoy quite a lot of players. Although to be fair to them, Pocketpair probably didn't do themselves any favours by not mentioning it in the patch notes.
As discovered over on Reddit, it would appear Pocketpair has updated the game so that you can no longer use rude words when naming your Pal or world. These words are now replaced by asterisks instead, regardless of whether you're playing in single-player or taking advantage of the game's online options.
Obviously it makes sense to censor salty language for multiplayer. If I had a kid I wouldn't want them asking me why a Palworld player had called their world 69WillyBumBumLand. But people seem pretty annoyed the restrictions have extended to single-player, with many claiming this should be an optional feature when playing on private servers.
Cards on the table: I'm really not desperate to call my Pals rude names so I don't really care about this, but we'll see if Pocketpair responds to the backlash.