Nintendo has just announced that it has officially filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developer of the runaway hit of 2024, Palworld. The case has been filed in the Tokyo District Court and blames Pocketpair for infringing against multiple patented properties when developing Palworld, and the prosecutor demands compensation for damages.
Palworld came out in January 2024 to Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, the game has the player catching and collecting monsters similar to Pokemon and within its first month of release, garnered over 25 million players.
Both fans of Nintendo and the gamer community at large were quick to point out the similarities between the Pals in Palworld and the long-running Pokemon series. Even though Pocketpair’s game is not based on any of Nintendo’s properties, the idea of catching eerily familiar monsters for sport was undeniably inspired by the idea of Pokemon. This can quite easily be seen as plagiarising Nintendo’s intellectual property, and in this case, it has.
Just being inspired by another developer’s IP isn’t a problem, it’s what the gaming industry is based on, but the Pals in the game aren’t merely based on Pokemon, some are nearly identical copies of 3D models from Pokemon games. This was pointed out by players and some of the similarities were uncanny.
Be that as it may, the character designs in Palworld aren’t the main focus of the case, instead, Nintendo has filed for a patent lawsuit against Pocketpair, not a copyright infringement case. This means that the gameplay of Palworld is more to blame than the designs of the Pals themselves.
Soon after the release of Palworld, Nintendo publicly stated that it was looking into the matter of copyright infringement and this is what came of that investigation. But the CEO of Pocketpair spoke on the controversy saying that Palworld cleared legal reviews before making it into the hands of gamers.
