Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are suing Palworld creator Pocketpair
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair in Tokyo. Pocketpair is the Japanese video game developer behind Palworld, a game people have been describing as a Pokemon parody, featuring cute gun-toting monsters. The game, released in Early Access form on January 18, was an instant hit, selling 15 million copies on Steam and crossing 25 million players within just a month.
The Pokemon Company said a few days after Palworld came out that it was going to investigate a game "released in January 2024" and will "take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokemon." Looks like the investigation is over, and it has decided to take legal action.
"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 said in its announcement of the lawsuit.
Pocketpair previously said that its game is more like Ark Survival Evolved and Valheim than Pokemon. Company CEO Takuro Mizobe claimed that Palworld "cleared legal reviews" and that no lawsuits were filed against Pocketpair regarding its development. While Palworld's monsters would look familiar to Pokemon fans, it takes on a darker tone. You can choose to play as a friend to the monsters known as "Pals" and fight off the poachers trying to kill them. But you can also kill and eat Pals, make them fight to the death and even sell them into slavery.
Shortly after Nintendo announced its lawsuit, Pocketpair responded. "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," the company wrote. "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."
Update, September 19 2024, 9:40AM ET: This story has been updated with Pocketpair's response to Nintendo's lawsuit.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-and-the-pokemon-company-are-suing-palworld-creator-pocketpair-031320550.html?src=rss