‘Palworld’ Responds To Being Suddenly Sued By Nintendo

When Palworld, the so-called “Pokémon with guns,” was first released, there were immediate questions about whether Nintendo would have anything to say about it. Some Pals looked like specific Pokémon. There was monster catching with balls. The game rocketed up in popularity with some saying it was better than Pokémon had been in years.

Then, nothing. Nintendo had little more than a “no comment” about the game, but now, eight months later, Palworld’s worst fear has come to pass, developer Pocketpair is being sued by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for what they say is patent infringement. From the filing:

“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.

Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.”

Overnight, Palworld has now responded to the lawsuit, saying they’re not aware of what Nintendo is even referring to in terms of infringement:

“At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details.

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. Palworld was a surprise success this year, both for gamers and for us. We were blown away by the amazing response to the game and have been working hard to make it even better for our fans. We will continue improving Palworld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of.

It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”

Speculation is flying about what is actually going on here. This is alleging patent infringement, not copyright or trademark, so this should not be about monster designs, though “intellectual property” is mentioned.

And while you catch monsters with balls, level them up and battle them, at its core, Palworld is a survival game about not just monster collection, but base-building and management, often with other players on a multiplayer map defending off waves of enemies, something Pokémon has never been about.

That said, it seems likely that the litigious Nintendo would not be moving forward with this if they did not have something it believes is significantly damaging. And whether whatever this is pans out and Pocketpair is found liable or not, this is going to be a significant investment of time and money for the company that is a fraction of the size of Nintendo. Yes, they made loads of money from Palworld up front, but how much of that will now need to be devoted to this? How much will this hamper further development if Palworld doesn’t even know what they’re supposed to be infringing on?

The general public sentiment about this news is that this reads like a somewhat bullying move from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company that may be sparked by fear of Palworld’s success and how Pokémon was compared unfavorably to the standout game. Or, they genuinely believe Palworld lifted something significant past similar monsters and a concept. But of course Nintendo does not own the concept of catching monsters. That’s not patented. So what is?

There’s also the question of whether Microsoft is going to get involved here, as they have a close relationship with Pocketpair and helped guide Palworld into being the mega-success it was. Are they going to go to bat here and back them? It’s too early to tell, but this madness is only getting started.

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