Nintendo & The Pokémon Company Slap ‘Palword’ Developer With Lawsuit, Some Gamers Think It’s A “Low Blow”
Written by djfrosty on September 19, 2024
Source: John Keeble / Getty / Pokémon Company / Nintendo
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have finally taken legal action against the developer of Palworld.
Spotted on Reuters, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company hit Tokyo-based Pocketpair Inc., developer of Palworld, also called by gamers “Pokemon with guns,” an infringement lawsuit on Wednesday.
Per Reuters:
The lawsuit, filed with the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday, seeks an injunction and compensation for damages on the grounds that the game, made by Tokyo-based Pocketpair Inc, infringes multiple patent rights.
The lawsuit comes months after the game’s January release, quickly becoming one of the year’s biggest hits. In the action/survival game, players use guns to capture and train cute creatures called Pals to help them complete missions and build their bases.
Pocketpair confirmed it received the lawsuit Wednesday, noting that it does not know precisely what patents were infringed upon.
The studio said in a statement that it would begin appropriate legal proceedings and look into Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s claims.
“It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit,” Pocketpair said.
Palworld has been on Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s radar since January, with both companies saying they would look into the game since January.
Millions of dollars later and a partnership with Sony to license the game globally later, Nintendo has finally said aht aht aht.
As expected, this lawsuit has sparked plenty of conversations on social media.
You can see those reactions in the gallery below.