Pocketpair and Palworld took the world by storm when the title was released in January. Many fans called Palworld “Pokémon with guns” and today Nintendo has filed litigation against the company.
Since Palworld was released in January, fans have taken to the internet via X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit to showcase the similarities between the massive Pokémon brand creations and Palworld creatures. This resulted in many fans on both platforms calling the title “Pokémon with guns.” Although Pocketpair (the studio behind Palworld) broke records with Palworld at the time, the launch was mired in controversy, with some claiming that ‘Pals’ were too geometrically close in framework to certain creatures featured in the Nintendo-published series to be a coincidence.
On Thursday, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed litigation against Pocketpair for patent infringement. The statement reads, “This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights.” What many fans thought would happen when Palworld launched is occurring with the lawsuit.
Pocketpair has fired back against the lawsuit, releasing their own statement in response. Pocketpair starts by saying they aren’t sure what they’re being sued for, alleging “we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details.” The statement then reads “Pocketpair is a small indie game company based in Tokyo. Our goal as a company has always been to create fun games. We will continue to pursue this goal because we know that our games bring joy to millions of gamers around the world.”
Lastly, the studio laments the time they have to react to the lawsuit and apologizes to fans due to the new allocation of the developer’s resources instead of continuing to develop Palworld. The joint lawsuit pressed by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company has only just launched, so fans will have to wait and see for what happens next.
