The acclaimed survival simulator Palworld from the Japanese studio Pocketpair became part of the September State of Play broadcast – the game was finally released on PS5, but bypassed its home country.
Image Source: Steam (BLASTER)
As the official Japanese microblog Palworld clarifies, the game debuted on PS5 in 68 regions around the world, but not in the Land of the Rising Sun. The exact release date has not yet been determined.
«We apologize to everyone in Japan who was waiting for the release. Our staff will do everything possible to release [Palworld] on PS5 as soon as possible, so we hope you can wait a little longer,” reads the official statement.
Image source: PlayStation Store
The Palworld developers did not specify the reason for the delay, but it is almost certainly related to the lawsuit against Pocketpair that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company (TPC) recently filed in the Tokyo District Court.
As a result of a “thorough review of the content,” Nintendo and TPC decided that Palworld was infringing several patent rights (which Pocketpair did not know) and were seeking an injunction against such material along with damages.
Let us remind you that Palworld offers to breed, arm, eat and send Pals to work – creatures suspiciously similar to Pokemon. The release of the game on PS5 was accompanied by a minute-long trailer without a single second of gameplay.
Palworld is still in early access. It launched on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X, S and Game Pass on January 19. By the end of February, the project’s audience exceeded 25 million people, and sales on Steam exceeded 15 million copies.