Nintendo And The Pokémon Company Are Suing Palworld Developer

Remember back in January when The Pokémon Company said it planned to “investigate” monster-taming game Palworld for intellectual property rights infringement? Well, it looks like Pikachu and friends are officially filing a lawsuit against the knock-off game’s developer. On September 18, the company and Nintendo released a joint statement on the publisher’s website announcing the lawsuit, saying it is seeking compensation for damages against Palworld developer Pocketpair on the grounds of patent infringement. Shortly after its January 2024 launch, Palworld skyrocketed in popularity while also raising eyebrows for its monster designs, which seemed nearly identical to those in Pokémon .

Nintendo and Pokémon’s full statement reads as follows: Kotaku has reached out to Pocketpair for comment on the situation and will update this story should we hear back. Despite the similarities in designs, some players believed that Palworld offered a better experience than many of the most recent Pokémon games . This followed years of growing discontent with games like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet , which were plagued with technical troubles at launch .

The similarities were a hot topic of controversy when the game launched, and fans were quick to mod the game with Pokémon characters , which was promptly DMCA’d . This all comes two months after Pocketpair partnered with Sony to create Palworld Entertainment , a company dedicated to expanding the franchise..