Palworld confirms ‘disappointing’ game changes forced by Pokémon lawsuit

Palworld developer Pocketpair has confirmed significant game changes it claims were forced by the ongoing lawsuit from Nintendo.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair in Japan last year, alleging that Palworld infringes on three patents that are related to monster catching gameplay, all of which were initially filed by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company between February and July last year. Palworld was released on January 19, 2024.

On Thursday, Pocketpair confirmed it had previously patched out the ability to summon Pals via ‘Pal Spheres’ due to the legal action, and confirmed that further changes were coming in order to avoid disrupting future development and releases.

“On November 30th, 2024, we released Patch v0.3.11 for Palworld,” it said. “This patch removed the ability to summon Pals by throwing Pal Spheres and instead changed it to a static summon next to the player.

“Several other game mechanics were also changed with this patch. As many have speculated, these changes were indeed a result of the ongoing litigation. Everyone here at Pocketpair was disappointed that this adjustment had to be made, and we fully understand that many players feel the same frustration.

“Unfortunately, as the alternative would have led to an even greater deterioration of the gameplay experience for players, it was determined that this change was necessary.”

In addition, Pocketpair said that with the implementation of Patch v0.5.5 this week, “we must make yet another compromise”.

“From this patch onward, gliding will be performed using a glider rather than with Pals. Pals in the player’s team will still provide passive buffs to gliding, but players will now need to have a glider in their inventory in order to glide.

“We understand that this will be disappointing for many, just as it is for us, but we hope our fans understand that these changes are necessary in order to prevent further disruptions to the development of Palworld.

“We also want to extend our apologies to our fans for the discomfort and concern this ongoing litigation has caused. We remain committed to developing Palworld and delivering exciting new content to our fans.”

In a series of “preparatory briefs” filed in February, Pocketpair argues that Nintendo’s patents-in-suit shouldn’t have been granted because prior work using them was released before the date Nintendo claimed to have invented them.

Addressing one patent about capturing characters by releasing fighting characters (monsters) or capture balls, Pocketpair argues that its own Craftopia game did exactly the same thing.

The studio then lists multiple games that it argues prove that a certain feature was already known before Nintendo filed the original patent applications.