The monster-taming genre has a labeling problem. Every time a new creature-collector surfaces, the internet immediately reaches for the same tired phrase: Pokemon killer. The studio behind Temtem is tired of hearing it.
Crema, the developer behind the well-regarded monster-taming MMO Temtem, has publicly rejected the Pokemon killer tag being applied to its upcoming title, Temtem: Pioneers. The studio took to X to make its position clear: “We've seen the 'Pokémon killer' label floating around again, and we want to say it loud and clear: that's not us. Temtem: Pioneers is yet another love letter to the monster-taming genre, not a replacement for any of them. We're happy to offer another great adventure alongside all the amazing games in the genre!”
What Temtem: Pioneers actually is
Here's the thing: Temtem: Pioneers is a genuine departure from the original Temtem MMO, and that departure is what's drawing the comparisons in the first place. Where the first game leaned into turn-based battles and online MMO structure, Pioneers pulls directly from the Palworld playbook. Think real-time action combat, survival mechanics, base-building, resource management, crafting, and co-op play.
Still, it keeps the creature-collecting core intact. There are over 200 tems to tame, train, and control in real-time fights, which is exactly the kind of feature set that gets the internet reaching for hyperbolic labels.
Palworld itself knows this territory well. Pocketpair has already commented on the Pioneers reveal, with the Palworld dev team saying they wish Crema "nothing but the best" and that they "thought the trailer looked great," even while acknowledging comparisons between the two games are inevitable. That kind of mutual respect between studios working in the same space is refreshing, especially given how aggressively the Pokemon killer framing tends to pit developers against each other.
Why the label keeps sticking
The Pokemon killer tag exists because Pokemon has dominated the creature-collecting subgenre for nearly three decades with relatively little serious competition at the top. Any game that lets you catch, train, and battle creatures gets measured against it by default, regardless of how different the actual design is.
What most players miss is that the genre has room for multiple strong entries doing completely different things. Palworld proved that a survival-crafting angle could coexist with creature collection without cannibalizing Pokemon's audience. Temtem proved a more hardcore, competitive-focused MMO could find its own community. Pioneers is now trying to blend those two worlds.
Crema describes Pioneers as its next "project-made-in-earnest-with-love-and-care-and-not-trying-to-eliminate-or-substitute-any-other-games." That framing matters. The key here is that studios making games in this space seem far more interested in building a healthy genre than tearing each other down, even if the audience commentary doesn't always reflect that.
What comes next for Pioneers
Temtem: Pioneers does not have a release date yet. Crema has confirmed it will launch on Steam and the Epic Games Store when it's ready, with the Kickstarter campaign still running and well past its initial target.
The Kickstarter momentum suggests there's genuine appetite for what Pioneers is building, Pokemon killer framing aside. A survival game with 200-plus creatures to collect, real-time combat, and co-op play is a compelling pitch on its own terms without needing to position itself against anything else in the genre.
For more on what's arriving in the creature-collecting and survival space, browse the latest gaming news to stay across upcoming releases. And if you want to dig into how Palworld itself has been evolving, the latest reviews cover the current state of the game in detail.
