Palworld is also referred to as Pokémon with guns, because it’s pretty similar to the game. Enough is enough for Nintendo and the company is now starting a fight in court.
When you play Palworld, several things stand out. The design and some of the monsters in the game look suspiciously like Pokémon. Some even call it an AI copy. Even Nintendo is now noticing it.
The company has sued the makers of Palworld, Pocketpair, for allegedly violating several patents. In a press release, Nintendo also explains why. It wants compensation for the damages it says it suffered from the new game.
Pokémon vs. Palworld
Although Palworld is not officially out yet, the game is already playable in early access, a kind of beta version of the game. Especially at the beginning of this year, it was a big hit. The creators managed to sell more than 5 million copies in three days. By the way, the game is also free to play via Xbox Game Pass and is also coming to PlayStation. Pocketpair is leaving the Nintendo Switch alone for now.
Unlike Pokémon, Palworld is a survival game, which means you have to survive primarily. You do this by building a base and teaming up with various monsters called pals. This doesn’t look much like Pokémon yet, but that changes when you see the Pals. These are extremely similar to Pokémon. So much so, that it sometimes seems like the creators didn’t really bother to hide the differences.
We don’t see Charizard doing this. (Image: Pocketpair)
Nintendo goes full battle
Nintendo has been known to protect its titles heavily from people companies that infringe on its rights. Consequently, anything that even slightly resembles characters from Nintendo games such as Super Mario and Pokémon is immediately sued. It was therefore a surprise that Nintendo did nothing against Palworld for quite some time, but now it is finally taking action.
In a brief press release, Nintendo announced its moves. The company says several patents have been violated, only it does not name exactly which ones.
