Full Palworld lawsuit timeline: Nintendo & Pokemon’s beef with indie hit explained
Nintendo/Pokemon/PocketpairGaming giant Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have slapped Palworld developer Pocketpair with a patent infringement lawsuit. We’ve created a detailed timeline to explain the events leading up to the long-suspected legal action.
Unless you were living under a rock in January this year, you’ve probably heard the term ‘Pokemon with guns’. This was the moniker gamers around the world gave to Palworld, a wonderful blend of the survival and monster-taming genres developed by indie studio Pocketpair.
Despite still being in early access, Palworld was a hit at the time of its arrival. In fact, that’s probably underselling it but we’ll get there. Unfortunately for the little indie that could, a noticeable similarity to Pokemon’s gameplay and creature design had players worried (and detractors hopeful) that the famously litigious Nintendo might take issue with Palworld.
Turns out, they did. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have banded together to issue Palworld developer Pocketpair with a patent infringement lawsuit. This timeline will go over all the events that led to that moment.
PocketPair/The Pokemon CompayPokemon vs Palworld lawsuit: The complete timeline
Comparisons to Pokemon have been present since the very first appearance of Palworld online. It likely wasn’t an accident on the part of developer Pocketpair given the extreme similarities between the two properties.
Palworld prerelease
June 5, 2021: What feels like eons ago now, Pocketpair released the first-ever trailer for Palworld. Racking up millions of views through reposts and sharing on platforms like Facebook and Twitter (now X), it immediately earned the designation ‘Pokemon with guns’.
Pals like Anubis were shown in the initial trailer and the perceived lack of distinction between some creature designs and existing Pokemon had some commenters convinced that Palworld would never see the light of day. Over the next two years, this same trailer would be reposted countless times and these talking points were commonly repeated.
May 26, 2023: After years of relative silence from Pocketpair, the developer began revealing tutorials for Palworld. While aspects of the game appeared to have changed since the first trailer dropped. The creature designs and mechanics still felt very similar to Pokemon.
One specifically detailed how to capture Pals by weakening and containing them in a thrown “sphere” apparently meant to be legally distinct from a Poke Ball. Interestingly, games journalist Stephen Totilo has identified a 2021 patent from Nintendo for “throwing an item to catch a monster while out in the field”. This potential lynchpin in the patent infringement lawsuit could have been identified as early as May last year.
June 8, 2023: Pocketpair shows off a trailer for Palworld at Summer Games Fest marking the first time the game would get real exposure outside of niche groups on the internet. Upon its reveal to a wider audience, the Pokemon comparisons would rear their head again and legal action from Nintendo was seen as an inevitability.
“Nintendo is the most legally aggressive video game company on the planet… they will sue, trust me,” one YouTube user commented. “I really hope they don’t win when they sue this game,” another replied.
Despite these concerns, prospective players expressed a lot of excitement for Palworld and were delighted to find out that it would be released in early access in January 2024.
Palworld launches to massive success and major drama
January 19, 2024: Palworld launched on PC and Xbox. The game racked up sales numbers in the tens of millions and saw a very active day-one player base thanks to its availability on Xbox Game Pass.
On the same day, Pokemon fans slammed Palworld claiming that devs ‘ripped off’ creature designs from Game Freak’s beloved franchise.
January 21, 2024: Despite the criticisms leveled against the game, Palworld amassed a concurrent player count of 2,101,867 on Steam. It became the second most played game of all time on the platform at that point, later dethroned by Black Myth: Wukong.
Palworld players vehemently defended the game and its popularity was so unexpected, developers had rushed meetings with Epic to address the stress on servers.
SteamdbJanuary 24, 2024: Nintendo finally addressed its fans’ complaints about Palworld and issued a statement claiming the company would “investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokemon.” A precursor to the patent infringement lawsuit they would file against Pocketpair later.
On the same day, Nintendo took down a video advertising a Pokemon mod for Palworld with a DMCA claim. Nexusmods would later remove any Pokemon-related mods for Palworld from the platform.
June 26, 2024: Palworld Director Takuro Mizobe reveals that despite the announcement from Nintendo about an investigation into Palworld and potential infringements, Pocketpair had heard nothing.
Many took this to believe that Pocketpair and Palworld were in the clear and the developer could continue their work without fear of Nintendo’s legal team.
July 10, 2024: Pocketpair announces they’ve teamed up with Aniplex and Sony Music Entertainment to establish Palworld Entertainment, Inc. The aim of this being to turn Palworld into a multimedia property that rivals Pokemon in areas like television and merchandising.
September 18, 2024: Nintendo revealed they’ve teamed with The Pokemon Company to issue a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair that will be handled within the Tokyo District Court.
Palworld fans slammed the move from Nintendo and The Pokemon Company and legal experts weighed in to explain that this particular lawsuit was not necessarily in response to the perceived plagiarism of Pokemon character designs. The real issue may lie in Palworld’s mechanics or software design.
September 19, 2024: Pocketpair gave an official response to the lawsuit calling the situation “truly unfortunate”. The developer also revealed they are currently “unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details”.
November 8, 2024: Pocketpair revealed that The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are seeking 10 million yen, around $66,000 / £50,000, from the lawsuit. This is on top of any late payment damages which could cause the figure to rise. This huge payout would be split between both companies evenly at 5 million yen each.
At the time of writing, we know about as much as Pocketpair does about which particular patents Nintendo is alleging were infringed. Details on the lawsuit itself are sparse but we’ll be endeavoring to keep readers updated on the more intricate details of the case.
For now, we have a breakdown of how patent law works both in and out of Japan to help you get a better understanding of what’s going on here. Check that out if you’re looking to dive deeper into the Pokemon vs Palworld (legal) battle of the century.