Posted by Alumni from Wired
September 20, 2024
Palworld, colloquially known to fans as 'Pokemon with guns,' is in hot water. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company announced Thursday that they've filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Tokyo against Pocketpair, the company behind the game, claiming Palworld 'infringes multiple patent rights.' The lawsuit isn't completely unexpected. In Palworld, players catch creatures by weakening them and trapping them in Pal Spheres, similar to Poke Balls. Fans have also pointed out numerous similarities in design between Pals and Pokemon. Players have also drawn Nintendo's ire for creating mods that make the connection explicit by including actual Pokemon. Palworld, released in January, was an instant success. Within its first month, the open world survival game sold more than 12 million copies and became Microsoft's biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever. On Thursday, as news of the lawsuit spread, Pocketpair released a statement saying the company was 'unaware of the specific patents [it is]... learn more