Nintendo President finally breaks silence on Palworld “infringing” on Pokemon

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has broken his silence on Palworld as the Pokemon-style game continues to dominate.

Palworld, the Pokemon-inspired game where monsters have guns, has become a worldwide hit and has grown to become Steam’s best-selling game with a whopping 500K concurrent players.

The game’s success hasn’t been without controversy, however, as many of its lovable monsters have been compared directly with similar Pokemon, raising allegations that the devs copied their design.

Now, Nintendo has responded to the drama during a recent earnings Q&A following the company’s financial results briefing.

Nintendo warns it will take “appropriate action” amid Palworld concerns

When asked about Palworld directly, Shuntaro Furukawa warned that Nintendo would not hesitate to protect its IP.

“We will take appropriate action against those that infringe our intellectual property rights,” he said, speaking in general terms.

Furukawa’s statement mirrors that of The Pokemon Company itself, which responded to the successful launch of Palworld on January 24, reiterating that no permission was granted to use the Pokemon IP and assets.

“We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokemon,” they said.

So far, it doesn’t appear that Nintendo has taken any action against Palworld just yet, so well have to see if the two companies end up needing to settle things in court.

At the moment, anyway, the biggest financial battle for developer Pocket Pair comes in the form of server costs for its game – something streaming platform Rumble wants to assist with.