Nintendo sues Palworld creator for infringing on ‘multiple’ patents

Nintendo is suing Pocketpair, the developer of the popular Pokémon-like game Palworld, for allegedly infringing “multiple patent rights”.

In a brief public statement posted on Nintendo’s website early this morning, the company confirmed that it filed a patent infringement lawsuit in a Tokyo court yesterday, September 18.

Nintendo is now seeking “an injunction against infringement and damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and published by Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights.”

Palworld has been compared to Pokémon since its initial announcement, often being called “Pokémon with weapons.” The monster collecting and battling game has even been criticized by Pokémon’s own fans, who have said that many of Palworld’s creature designs are similar.

Originally released in January of this year for PC and Xbox including Xbox Game Pass, Palworld proved to be a hit. In its first month of release, Palworld achieved Xbox’s “biggest month ever on console” in terms of playtime, with 10 million players giving Palworld a try on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, with a further 15 million people signing up via Steam.

Palworld’s success did not go unnoticed by The Pokémon Company at the time, of which Nintendo is a major stakeholder. In late January, The Pokémon Company released a rare statement about Palworld’s existence, saying that it planned to “investigate” any content it believed “infringes on intellectual property rights.” Six months later, however, Palworld creator Takuro Mizobe confirmed that the threat had not been followed up behind the scenes.

So why now? Much of the fuss surrounding Palworld’s original launch has died down by now, but Pocketpair recently announced a version of Palworld for PlayStation 5. It seems Nintendo is taking action now, ahead of an official announcement for the PS5 version of the game.

“Nintendo will continue to take appropriate measures against any infringement of its intellectual property rights, including the Nintendo brand itself,” the company’s statement today concluded, “in order to protect the intellectual property the company has worked hard to build up over the years.”

Eurogamer has contacted Pocketpair for comment.