Nintendo is suing Pocketpair, developer of the hit Pokémon-style game Palworld, for allegedly infringing “multiple patent rights.”
In a brief public statement posted on Nintendo's website in the early hours of this morning, the company confirmed that it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit in a Tokyo court yesterday, September 18.
Nintendo is now seeking “an injunction against infringement and damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and published by Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights.”
Palworld has been constantly compared to Pokémon since it was first announced, and has often been called “Pokémon with guns.” The monster-collecting and battling game has been criticized even by Pokémon fans themselves, who have said that many of Palworld's creature designs are similar.
Originally launched in January of this year on PC and Xbox, including Xbox Game Pass, Palworld has proven to be a hit. In its first month of release, Palworld achieved the “biggest month ever for Xbox on consoles” in terms of playtime, with 10 million players trying out Palworld on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, and another 15 million people joining via Steam.
Palworld's success did not go unnoticed at the time by The Pokémon Company, of which Nintendo is a key shareholder. In late January, The Pokémon Company released a rare statement referring to the existence of Palworld and stating that it intended to “investigate” any content it believed might “infringe intellectual property rights.” However, six months later, Palworld creator Takuro Mizobe confirmed that the threat had not been followed up on behind the scenes.
And why now? Much of the hype surrounding Palworld’s original release has died down, but Pocketpair has recently announced a PlayStation 5 version of Palworld. It seems possible that Nintendo is acting now, before any official announcement of a PS5 version of the game materializes.
“Nintendo will continue to take appropriate action against any infringement of its intellectual property rights, including the Nintendo brand itself,” the company's statement concluded, “to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.”
Eurogamer has contacted Pocketpair for comment.