Nintendo Sics Patent Lawyers On Pocketpair, Dev Of Smash Hit Palworld

Palworld, the first game to become a hit in 2024, now finds itself at the center of a legal battle. The game’s developer, Pocketpair, is being sued by Nintendo alongside The Pokémon Company. In a statement, Nintendo says that “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.” This lawsuit shouldn’t be too big of a surprise, as Nintendo has a track record of being a litigious company.

Many on social media pointed out the likelihood of this scenario considering the many similarities between the many monsters that populate Palworld and the Pokémon franchise. Some users even went so far as to drop some of the monsters from Palworld into 3D software in order to compare them to monsters from Pokémon to show just how similar the designs were.

Moreover, once the game started to skyrocket up the sales chart, Nintendo made it well known that it was looking into whether Palworld was infringing on its intellectual property. At that point, this legal move was just a matter of time. It certainly doesn’t work in Pocketpair’s favor that the game is often described as “Pokémon with guns.”

At the very least Pocketpair will have some financial muscle as it fends off this legal challenge, as the company has brought in significant profit. In a statement on social media platform X, it stated that it “will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement.” It would go on to add that it will work hard to “ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”

It’s difficult to say how successful Nintendo and The Pokémon Company will be with this lawsuit, as there are other properties such as Digimon that use similar ideas. Ultimately, it will be up to the judge to decide if Palworld is a ripoff or just simply riffing off of Pokémon.