PocketPair’s game has made its way to Sony’s console after the Xbox Series and PC, but while Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have sued the Japanese studio, there’s another factor to consider.
Sales of the PlayStation 5 port are doing quite well, but in Japan, the developers’ home country, you can’t buy Palworld on the PlayStation Network. John “Bucky” Buckley, PocketPair’s international community manager, told GameRant that this region is their second most active audience when it comes to active PC gamers!
Bucky spoke about this at the Tokyo Game Show, where PocketPair had a booth.He told GameRant that they have more active players in Japan than in any other country except China.Perhaps the studio is already anticipating the Nintendo/The Pokémon Company lawsuit. They also didn’t give a reason why the game isn’t available for Sony’s console in their home country, but the public in general suspects that the big N is the reason for its unavailability in Japan.
A few days before the release of the PlayStation 5 port of Palworld, a lawsuit was filed against PocketPair, as Nintendo claims that Palworld violates one of their patents, but the developers have no idea which one (the Pokéball one, perhaps?). Florian Mueller, a veteran patent analyst, told GameRant that he believes Nintendo’s action against PocketPair will have no discernible effect outside of Japan.
For Japanese gamers aged 6 to 18, consoles are the most popular gaming platform (72.3%), followed by mobile (63.8%) and PC (14.7%). PC had a much lower share a few years ago and has recently started to grow more, as not many people in the Asian island nation own a PC or Xbox. Therefore, PlayStation 5 would remain the way to go for Palworld, as there is little chance of a Nintendo Switch version…
The question is what will happen with PocketPair after this…
