Publisher and developer Nintendo, along with its partially owned The Pokemon Company (TPC), filed a lawsuit in Tokyo District Court against Japanese studio Pocketpair for its survival simulator Palworld.
Image Source: Steam (BLASTER)
Let us remind you that Palworld offers to breed, arm, eat and send Pals to work – creatures suspiciously similar to Pokemon. In January, TPC promised to check “Pokémon with guns” for copyright infringement.
Following a “thorough review of the content,” Nintendo and TPC have determined that Palworld is infringing multiple patent rights and are seeking an injunction against such material along with damages.
Nintendo did not specify which patent rights Palworld violated, and, judging by a statement to the Kotaku portal, it does not intend to do so: “We will refrain from commenting on topics related to the content of the lawsuit.”
Image source: Pocketpair
While the similarities between Palworld’s designs and Pokemon received the most attention from players and journalists at Palworld’s release, that’s probably not what Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are complaining about.
As Video Games Chronicle noted, Nintendo and TPC are accusing Palworld of patent infringement, not copyright infringement, so it’s likely a question of the game’s gameplay innovation rather than its artistic features.
Palworld early access started on January 19 on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X, S and Game Pass. By the end of February, the project’s audience exceeded 25 million people, and sales on Steam exceeded 15 million copies.