The big N has officially announced that it’s taking PocketPair, who brought Palworld to Xbox Series, PC and Xbox One earlier this year, to court…
Nintendo, along with The Pokémon Company, filed the lawsuit in a Tokyo court on September 18. The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief and damages after PocketPair allegedly infringed on several patents in Palworld, which was released in early access in January. The Pokémon Company announced in August that it was already investigating the game, which features several Pals that explicitly resemble Pokémon, and what the studio had done seemed almost like theft.
Despite this, Palworld has a very positive rating on Steam, with over 274,000 reviews, which could mean it will be removed from digital stores, making it completely unplayable, if the judge ultimately decides to do so. Nintendo’s statement was brief, concluding with the big N taking all necessary steps against infringement of its own intellectual property, including the Nintendo brand, to protect the IP it has created over the years.
As the Japanese company also kicks against emulators and fan games/remakes (AM2R, a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, suffered the same fate…), it was to be expected that Nintendo would react to the success of Palworld in this way, and that Nintendo would guarantee to be aggressive against PocketPair. It’s surprising, though, that more than half a year after its launch, the company has resorted to this! Electabuzz, Wooloo (see below), Yamper, Eevee – these are just a few of the Pokémon we’ll see in Palworld. Almost without exception, you can see the similarities, sometimes mixing two Pokémon together, even across generations.
When Palworld collapses, it will be interesting. After all, it’s almost guaranteed that it won’t appear on the Nintendo Switch (or its successor), but in the meantime, a PlayStation 5 port is reportedly in the works…
