Pocketpair Studios is facing a legal battle. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court, accusing the developers of Palworld of infringing on their patents.
Palworld
The companies have demanded that Pocketpair cease the patent infringement and pay compensation. The amount of compensation they seek has not been disclosed in the official lawsuit announcement.
Palworld was released on January 19, 2024, becoming a major hit. Within the first month, it was purchased by 15 million Steam users, and another 10 million people played it via the Game Pass subscription. From the start, many accused the game of plagiarism, noting the similarity of Palworld characters to Pokémon. Eventually, The Pokémon Company launched an investigation into the game in January, but the lawsuit has been filed only now.
It is important to note that neither Nintendo nor The Pokémon Company has claimed copyright infringement. In a comment to Bloomberg, Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda indicated that the companies' claims likely concern not the appearance of Palworld characters, but the game mechanics.
Pocketpair has yet to comment on the lawsuit.