Pocketpair, the Japanese developer best known for its 2024 action-adventure, survival, and monster-taming game, Palworld, has announced that it will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into claims of patent infringement following the announcement yesterday from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company about how they’ve filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, alleging infringement of “multiple patents” and intellectual property. Palworld, which remains available on Steam as an Early Access title for $29.99, peaked eight months ago on Valve’s platform with 2,101,867 players, according to numbers derived from SteamDB.
Pocketpair writes:
- “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.”
Nintendo announced yesterday (machine translation):
- “Nintendo…in collaboration with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocket Pair…in the Tokyo District Court on September 18, 2024.”
- “The lawsuit seeks an injunction against the defendants and compensation for damages, alleging that the game ‘Palworld’ developed and sold by the defendants infringes multiple patents.”
- “In order to protect the valuable intellectual property that we have built up through many years of hard work, we will continue to take the necessary measures against any infringement of our intellectual property, including our brand.”
Some promos for Palworld:
Game description:
Fight, farm, build and work alongside mysterious creatures called “Pals” in this completely new multiplayer, open world survival and crafting game! In a harsh environment where food is scarce and vicious poachers roam, danger waits around every corner. To survive, you must tread carefully and make difficult choices…even if that means eating your own Pals when the time comes.
Palworld is home to over 100 unique Pals, each equipped with a diverse set of skills to enhance the player’s adventure. Along your journey, you will also encounter formidable boss Pals that pose a challenge even for the most seasoned Pal tamers. Naturally, these boss Pals are also capturable.