Palworldpopularly known to fans as “Pokémon with guns,” is in hot water. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced Thursday that they have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in Tokyo against Poketpair, the company that runs the game, they said. Palworld “infringes multiple copyrights.”
The case is completely unexpected. In Palworldplayers capture creatures by weakening them and trapping them in Pal Spheres, which are similar to pokéballs. Fans have also pointed out many similarities in design between Pals and Pokémon. Players also drew Nintendo’s ire by creating ways to make communication transparent by including real Pokémon.
It is surprising, however, that Nintendo’s statement alleges copyright infringement, not copyright, which may indicate that the suit may be more about the game mechanics than the creation of the creatures.
Palworldwhich was released in January, was an instant success. Within the first month, the open-world survival game sold more than 12 million copies and became Microsoft’s largest third-party Game Pass launch.
On Thursday, as news of the lawsuit spread, Pocketpair released a statement saying the company was “not aware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing,” but vowed to investigate the claims.
The company says it will continue to work on improving the game; released a patch with bug fixes earlier this week. “It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to spend significant time on non-game development activities due to this lawsuit,” the statement read: “However, we will do our best for our fans, and ensure that indie game developers are not prevented or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”
Online, fans continue to vocally support the game. “Instead of harassing small companies, your followers should make better products,” one X user wrote in response to Pocketpair’s post about the lawsuit. “Nintendo really needs to be humbled, and competition is healthy for everyone involved,” wrote another. Others supported Nintendo, as Serkan Toto, CEO of game industry consultancy Katan Games, noted to X that “it has a legendary history (especially in Japan) of cases like this.”
In previous interviews, the CEO of Pocketpair, Takuro Mizobe, rejected the claims that they are not doing well, saying “we are not willing to break the law of other companies.”
Nintendo, apparently, disagrees. In a statement released, the company says it will “continue to take the necessary steps against any infringement of its intellectual property rights, including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual property it has worked so hard to create over the years.” The company has a long history of doing just that. The big surprise here? That this took a long time.