Pal Worldcolloquially known to fans as “Pokémon with guns,” is in trouble. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced Thursday that they have filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Tokyo against Pocketpair, the company behind the game, alleging that Pal World “infringes multiple patent rights.”
The demand is not entirely unexpected. Pal WorldPlayers catch creatures by weakening them and trapping them in Pal spheres, similar to Pokéballs. Fans have also pointed out numerous similarities In design between Pals and Pokémon. Players have also drawn the ire of Nintendo for creating mods that make the connection explicit by including real Pokémon.
Interestingly, however, Nintendo’s statement alleges patent violations, not copyright violations, which may indicate The suit might have more to do with game mechanics than creature design.
Pal WorldReleased in January, it was an instant hit. In its first month, the open-world survival game sold more than 12 million copies and became Microsoft’s biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever made.
On Thursday, as news of the lawsuit spread, Pocketpair issued a statement saying the company was “unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing” but promised to investigate the allegations.
The company says it will continue to work to improve the game; it launched it a patch with bug fixes earlier this week. “It is truly unfortunate that we are forced to spend significant time on matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit,” The statement “However, we will do everything we can for our fans and to ensure that independent game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”
Online, fans continue to openly support the game. “Instead of bullying smaller companies, those attacking them should make better products,” said one X user. wrote in response to Pocketpair’s post about the lawsuit. “Nintendo really needs to be humiliated, and competition is healthy for everyone involved.” wrote Others backed Nintendo, which, as Serkan Toto, the CEO of gaming industry consultancy Katan Games, noted in X, has a “legendary career (especially in Japan) regarding demands like this.”
In Previous interviewsPocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe has denied the allegations of wrongdoing, saying: “We have absolutely no intention of infringing other companies’ intellectual property.”
Nintendo clearly disagrees. In the statement it released, the company says it will “continue to take necessary action 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 company has a long history of doing exactly that. The biggest surprise here? That it took so long.