Palworld developer Pocketpair has responded to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s shock patent infringement lawsuit with a statement that says it’s unaware which patents it’s being accused of infringing.
Overnight, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced the companies had taken legal action against fellow Japanese developer Pocketpair, alleging Palworld, dubbed Pokémon with guns by fans, “infringes multiple patent rights.” Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are seeking an injunction and compensation for damages.
Pocketpair has said it will continue to update Palworld despite the lawsuit, and apologized to players left concerned about the future of the game.
Here’s Pocketpair’s statement in full:
Regarding the Lawsuit
Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed against our company for patent infringement.
We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement.
At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details.
Pocketpair is a small indie game company based in Tokyo. Our goal as a company has always been to create fun games. We will continue to pursue this goal because we know that our games bring joy to millions of gamers around the world. Palworld was a surprise success this year, both for gamers and for us. We were blown away by the amazing response to the game and have been working hard to make it even better for our fans. We will continue improving Palworld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of.
It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.
We apologize to our fans and supporters for any worry or discomfort that this news has caused.
As always, thank you for your continued support of Palworld and Pocketpair.
Players were left wondering whether Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s lawsuit will force Palworld to shut down. As you’d expect, the official Palworld Discord is packed with posts from players debating the likelihood of Nintendo’s success with its lawsuit, and the implication it might have on the game.
Meanwhile, Pocketpair is continuing to update Palworld regardless. Just a few hours after Nintendo announced the lawsuit, Pocketpair released a hotfix for the Xbox version of Palworld to fix a fatal bug where wild Pals and base Pals would sometimes stop moving and working. The developer said the same issue is happening in the Steam version, and it’s on the case.
“Thank you for your continued support of Palworld,” Pocketpair tweeted.
Replies to this tweet were quick to note the timing of the hotfix. “Please don’t ever shut down the game, ya’ll killing it,” said one fan. “Y’all getting sued and posting hotfixes,” said another. “Not even phased,” added one user. “Does bro know they’re getting sued?” joked another.
After Palworld’s record-breaking launch in January and the subsequent comparisons to Pokémon, IGN asked experts whether Nintendo could potentially successfully sue Pocketpair. At the time, Peter Lewin, video game lawyer at Wiggin, told IGN much would depend on which country Nintendo pursued legal action in, given the differences in IP laws across the globe. The U.S., for example, has a “notoriously permissive” fair use defense, which might have influenced where Nintendo sued Pocketpair. Nintendo’s lawsuit was filed in the Tokyo District Court.
Sam Castree, a copyright lawyer and avid Pokémon player, told IGN there was the potential for a court order that would block Pocketpair from selling Palworld, but cast doubt on the likelihood of a lawsuit. That analysis, however, was in the context of a lawsuit based upon copyright infringement. Nintendo’s lawsuit alleges patent infringement, although the company has yet to detail which patents.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.