When Palworld was released earlier this year, many people referred to it as “Pokémon with guns”, and comparisons swirled online, with people noting how several Pals seemed to be more than a little reminiscent of Pokémon.
But Nintendo, who are prone to suing over the smallest things, did nothing about it and the discussion fizzled out, with developer Pocketpair confirming that Nintendo didn’t even contact them. But now the Japanese giant is letting it be known that it’s time to take the gloves off.
Via their website, Nintendo writes that they filed a lawsuit against Palworld on Wednesday:
“This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights.
Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.”
We will probably come back to this story several times, but at least the ball is rolling now. How and if this affects Pocketpair and Palworld remains to be seen.