In one of the most shameless speedruns of gaming controversy this year, the Steam page for Pickmos (formerly Pickmon) was unceremoniously yanked on April 17, 2026 — just days after its developer tried the laziest rebrand in history. The open-world creature-collector drew instant fire for what critics called “not a single original thing,” with accusations of asset-flipping designs straight from Pokémon, Palworld, Zelda, and even random fan art. Instead of addressing the plagiarism head-on, PocketGame (the dev) and Networkgo (the publisher) changed one letter in the title — from Pickmon to Pickmos — claiming it was “to better align with our brand identity and lore.” The audacity was next-level: a game that looked like it was built in a weekend by raiding other studios’ IP drawers, then slapping on a half-hearted name tweak and hoping nobody would notice.
The backlash was nuclear. Steam community forums filled with “SCAM WARNING” threads, side-by-side comparison videos, and calls for Valve to nuke the listing. Publisher Networkgo folded faster than a cheap lawn chair, publicly intervening and pulling the page themselves. In their statement they wrote: “Networkgo has officially intervened in the development of PocketGame. We will be supervising the Pickmos team from a player’s perspective to ensure the game keeps getting better.” The dev echoed the damage-control line: “We are revising the game to ensure a controversy-free experience. It will be re-released once our publisher gives the final approval.” Classic case of getting caught red-handed and pretending it was all part of the plan.
Pickmos was pitched as a multiplayer open-world survival game centered on creature collecting, battling, and exploration — the kind of “Pokémon meets Palworld” pitch that has become its own micro-genre on Steam. Players would roam a colorful, vibrant world, catching and training adorable (and not-so-adorable) monsters while gathering resources, crafting gear, and building bases in classic survival-crafting fashion. Trailers showed real-time combat, creature customization, and co-op elements that screamed “we took the best bits from the big boys and mashed them together.”
What made the game stand out — or rather, stand out in the worst way — was how little it actually stood out. The creature designs were eerily close to iconic Pokémon species, right down to color palettes and attack animations. The player character looked suspiciously like a Breath of the Wild-era Link, complete with the tunic and pointy ears. Even environments and UI elements borrowed heavily from Palworld’s survival loop and Zelda’s open-world freedom. On top of that, sleuthing players spotted direct lifts from Final Fantasy XIV outfits, Overwatch character models, and straight-up Pokémon fan art that had been circulating online for years.
Mechanically, Pickmos promised the usual genre checklist: capture hundreds of unique creatures, level them up through turn-based or real-time hybrid battles, explore a seamless open world, and team up with friends for raids or base-building. The survival side included hunger, stamina, and environmental hazards, while the collecting side leaned hard into the “gotta catch ’em all” dopamine loop. It was never meant to be a subtle homage — it was a straight-up greatest-hits package of everything that already works in the monster-taming and survival spaces.
For now, the game is in publisher-mandated limbo. Networkgo’s “supervision” suggests PocketGame has lost creative control, at least temporarily, while the team scrambles to sand off the most obvious stolen assets. Whether Pickmos returns as a cleaned-up, controversy-free experience or quietly fades into the graveyard of Steam early-access scandals remains to be seen. One thing’s certain: in the age of instant screenshots and viral side-by-sides, ripping off the two biggest creature-collecting franchises on the planet was never going to end quietly.