In January, Japan-based game developer PocketPair released its survival game Palworld. The game became a massive overnight hit on both the PC, via Steam. and for Microsoft's Xbox platform, where it was a Day One Xbox Game Pass title. In less than a month after its launch, PocketPair stated that Palworld had 25 million players, which included 15 million Steam gamers and 10 million Xbox players.
However, many people noticed that Palworld's cute creatures, branded as "Pals" look very similar to the creatures in the Pokémon game franchise. While not naming Palworld by name, The Pokémon Company made a statement soon after the game's launch that it had "received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024." It added that it had "not granted any permission" to use Pokémon assets in the game and said it would "take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights "
Well, that day has now come. In a press release, Nintendo, a part owner of the Pokémon series, and The Pokémon Company, announced they had filed a lawsuit against PocketPair in Tokyo District Court.
The press release stated:
This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights.
Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions 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 press release did not indicate how much compensation Nintendo and The Pokémon Company were seeking to get from PocketPair. As of this writing, PocketPair has yet to issue a statement about this new lawsuit against the developer. We will update this post when and if PocketPair releases a response.
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