Developer Pocketpair has signed an agreement with Krafton to bring Palworld to mobile platforms.
Krafton – which is perhaps best known for its work on PUBG – said this agreement will see the company “faithfully reinterpret and implement the main fun elements of the original for the mobile environment”.
Krafton’s subsidiary PUBG Studios will handle development of the mobile version of Pocketpair’s monster catching survival game, the company said.
Ahead of its initial release, many dubbed Palworld ‘Pokémon with guns’ due to its similarities with Nintendo’s own creature-catching game. It was the first big mega-hit of 2024, surpassing 2m concurrent players on Steam back in January. It was only the second game to ever achieve this, the other being – rather fittingly for this article – PUBG.
Palworld made its PlayStation debut just last week, following a period of Xbox console exclusivity. However, it is yet to get a PS5 release in Japan. While at the time, Sony and Pocketpair made no further comment on why this is, many assumed it had something to do with the fact Nintendo is currently suing Pocketpair for patent infringement.
Following word of Nintendo’s lawsuit, Pocketpair said it was unaware of which patents it had seemingly infringed. However, reports since have suggested it’s a patent to do with how players throw Pokéballs. However, soon after its PlayStation release, an IP expert went on to claim it was “exceedingly plausible” Nintendo crafted its patent applications specifically to target Palworld.