Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocket Pair in Tokyo. Pocket Pair is the Japanese video game developer behind Palworld, a well-known parody game of Pokémon featuring cute monsters with guns. Released as an early access version on January 18, the game became an instant hit, selling 15 million copies on Steam and reaching over 25 million players in just one month. A few days after the release of Palworld, The Pokémon Company announced that it would investigate the game, which will be released in January 2024, and “will take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” The investigation appears to be over, and they have decided to take legal action.
In announcing the lawsuit, Nintendo said, “This lawsuit seeks an injunction against the defendants and damages for the infringement of multiple patents allegedly committed by the defendants in their game ‘Palworld’ developed and published.”
Pocket Pair previously said its game is more similar to Ark Survival Evolved and Vanaheim than Pokémon. The company’s CEO, Takuro Mizobe, claimed Pal World has “cleared legal review” and that no lawsuits have been filed against Pocket Pair over its development. The monsters in Pal World are familiar to Pokémon fans, but with a darker vibe. You can play as friends of monsters called “Pal” and fight against poachers who try to kill them. But you can also kill and eat Pals, make them fight to the death, or sell them as slaves.
