Nintendo is filing a Lawsuit against the makers of Palworld

Nintendo has publicly announced that they, along with the Pokémon Company (TPC), are filing a lawsuit against the Palworld developers Pocketpair for "Infringement of Patent Rights", surprisingly, it feels like they took a while to take action, as the game's existence had been known for years and became available as early access in January 2024.

Normally, when something related to their games becomes widely known, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company tend to jump immediately to stop anyone who dares touch their territory as soon as it becomes popular, in this case, a monster-catching game where you can send them to fight and have suspiciously similar designs to some Pokémon.

Since its announcement, Palworld has been nicknamed by many as "Pokémon with Guns" because players can give weapons to some of these creatures. However, after Early Access became available, it became clearer that the game leans more towards the crafting-survival genre. It still retains some basic mechanics similar to Pokémon, such as catching monsters, having them fight enemies, elemental weaknesses, and more. While not exactly the same, the similarities can be seen, which is why since the very beginning, a lot of Pokémon fans have claimed plagiarism.

In early 2024, shortly after Pocketpair released Palworld as early access, The Pokémon Company announced that they would investigate the unauthorized use of their intellectual property and assets. However, there have been no further updates since then.

It's important to note that this could be a distinct investigation. The Pokémon Company's investigation appears to focus more on copyright infringements rather than patent rights. Both cases involve alleged copying of Pokémon, but they pertain to different aspects of it. It's possible that during their investigation, they stumbled upon something related to their patents and chose to pursue this lawsuit first and pursue a copyright one down the line.