Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have officially filed a lawsuit in a Tokyo court against the developers of the popular monster taming survival game Palworld on September 18.
The news release, posted to the Nintendo website on September 19, states the lawsuit alleges infringement of multiple patent rights against Japanese developer Pocketpair.
“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,” the news release says.
The court documents were not immediately available for viewing, so allegations and requested damages are not known. This article will be updated if the documents become publicly available. Cinelinx has reached out to Pocketpair and Nintendo with a request for more information.
The lawsuit was filed nearly 8 months to the day from the launch of Palworld, which released into early access on January 19, 2024.
The game, which was first announced in 2021, skyrocketed in popularity when it launched on PC via Steam and onto Xbox consoles through Xbox Game Pass. The game currently has more than 274,000 reviews on Steam with an overall rating of very positive.
The designs of the game’s monsters that are caught using “pal spheres” were immediately compared to their similar Pokémon counterparts, with some examples that include (Pal vs Pokémon):
- Anubis and Lucario
- Grizzbolt and Electabuzz
- Univolt and Zebstrika
- Sparkit and Raichu
- Pengullet and Piplup
- Jormuntide and Gyarados
- Robinquill and Decidueye
The key differences in Palworld were its survival aspects, base building and management, the ability to capture humans like Pals (though it is frowned upon canonically), and how you can craft equipment for your Pals that includes tools to turn them into deadly weapons.
