Palworld Sued By Nintendo: Has It Happened Yet?

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Palworld Sued By Nintendo: Has It Happened Yet?

Despite Palworld being inspired by Pokemon, some serious infringement issues are going on. Hence, keep reading for info on Palworld sued by Nintendo


Even though 2024 has just started, we already have a banger of a game that is taking the internet by storm. Yes, the game is none other than the latest open-world survival and crafting game developed by Pocketpair Inc. called Palworld. As soon as the game was released, players started noticing the eerily similar features in the game that match Nintendo’s beloved franchise, Pokemon and dubbed it, “Pokemon with Guns.” Hence, the internet is anticipating a lawsuit in the making, but is that true? Keep on reading to find out whether Palworld sued by Nintendo is actually a true statement and all the drama surrounding the game.

Palworld Sued By Nintendo: Has It Happened Yet?
Credit: @Pocketpair on YouTube

Palworld was released on January 19, 2024 for PC on Steam and for Xbox along with Game Pass. The game is still in early access and it is centered around capturing creatures, training them, shooting everything to the ground (Fortnite?) and crafting to survive in an open world. Yes, the concept is very similar to Pokemon and fans have been calling it “Pokemon with Guns” since the game’s announcement in June 202, but the character designs are just blatantly disturbing. One of the most uncanny similarities that gamers have found is between the Pokemon “Lucario” from Generation 4 and the Pal, “Anubis” in Palworld. 

Palworld Sued By Nintendo: Has It Happened Yet?
Credit: Pokemon

Other than that, most, if not all of the character models are eerily similar all the way down to the proportions as noted by animators or 3D model artists on Twitter. User Cecilia on X/Twitter created a whole thread showing all of the similarities between Palworld Pals and Pokemon

Palworld Sued by Nintendo: The Truth

Contrary to popular belief, Palworld has not yet been sued by Nintendo. Even the devs of the game, specifically the CEO of Pocketpair Inc., Takuro Mizobe has come out saying that they are not worried about a lawsuit from Nintendo. This is because they do not have any intention of infringing upon the copyright of Pokemon. According to the devs, the game passed all sorts of legal reviews and is not infringing upon the Pokemon copyright. For this reason, no legal actions or a lawsuit has been sent out by Nintendo against Palworld, at least not yet. 

In another interview, Takuro said that Palworld is indeed heavily inspired by the beloved franchise, Pokemon because it was the “greatest predecessor” and set the standard of all creature capture games in general. He also said that Palworld is not actually like Pokemon’s original storyline and genre but is more similar to another popular franchise. He compared the game to Studio Wildcard’s popular survival and action-adventure crafting game we all know and love, Ark: Survival Evolved. In the end, Pocketpair Inc. is not worried at all about the “Palworld sued by Nintendo” headlines because they are openly claiming to not be infringing upon Pokemon’s copyright.

However, Pocketpair is not completely off the hook yet because Nintendo or the Pokemon Company has officially issued a statement about the situation regarding Palworld. Nintendo said that they are going to investigate and take necessary actions regarding the recent claims of infringement issues upon the Pokemon copyright. Though they did not mention Palworld by name, they said that they have received many inquiries regarding “another company’s game released in January 2024.” They further added that no permission was granted to the game developers for use of the assets in Pokemon to be used. 

That being said, they ended the statement on a positive note saying that they will continue to work hard to bring the world together through Pokemon into the future. Needless to say, now that Nintendo has officially issued a statement and is investigating the matter properly, things are about to get serious. Despite Takuro, the CEO of Pocketpair saying that they are not infringing upon the Pokemon copyright, it seems that they clearly are. Hence, the claims saying that they aren’t worried about a lawsuit will be revoked pretty soon when the blatant copyright issues come to light officially. “Palworld sued by Nintendo” might just become a true headline this week.

No matter what anyone says, Palworld has already become one of the biggest games in 2024, despite not even a complete month of the year ending. As of writing this, Pocketpair has sold a whopping 5 million copies of the game on Steam within three days of release and the hype train is still moving forward. Whether the game is selling because people want to know what “Pokemon with Guns” is like or because they just like collecting and then shooting the creatures – we don’t know. However, the fact remains that despite Palworld being an early access game, it is a force to be reckoned with despite its clear similarities to Nintendo’s legendary franchise, Pokemon.

Hence, stay tuned for more updates on the situation regarding Palworld being sued by Nintendo and whether it will be true or not. 

Palworld Sued By Nintendo: Has It Happened Yet?
The Old One
When he's not sighing at sub-standard teammates in Dota 2 and CS2, The Old One is writing about those two games (among other things). If you see his name around the site too many times for your liking, well, the guy just never stops writing. Yes, we've tried an intervention.