Nintendo wants ‘Palworld’ shut down until alleged copyright infringements are sorted

Palworld developers have claimed Nintendo wants the game shut down while legal action over alleged copyright infringements is sorted.

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In September, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced they’d be taking legal action against Palworld developers Pocketpair over “multiple” patent infringements. Pocketpair responded to the “truly unfortunate” situation, saying it would take “appropriate legal proceedings” as it tried to establish what patents Palworld actually infringed upon.

Over the weekend Pocketpair shared a report into the legal battle. It’s claimed Nintendo believes Palworld has broken three different patents that cover starting battles by throwing objects and riding creatures in an open-world setting. All three were only filed earlier this year, however they are extensions of patents filed in 2021 while it was developing Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

Holy shit those are really toxic patents.

Patent 1: Throwing an object at a creature in open world to trigger combat.
Patent 2: Capturing creatures in the wild vs battle
Patent 3: Riding and switching creature transport in open world

I want palworld to win. https://t.co/IlTIYoUjVq

— Vinh Luu | Astoria Legends: Red Moon (@skyartxv) November 8, 2024

Both Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are seeking 5million yen (£25,000) in damages and are currently seeking an injunction that will halt all sales of Palworld until the legal proceedings are over. Speaking to PC Gamer, legal expert Kirk Sigmon claimed Pocketpair could “burn millions of dollars just trying to make this go away. It gets extremely expensive and time consuming, and it can wear a lot of small companies out.”

Speaking to NME in 2021, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe said he was “surprised” by the Pokémon comparisons “especially those labeling it as ‘Pokémon with guns’. Pokémon definitely inspired us, but Palworld is far more action-orientated in comparison.”

Responding to the initial lawsuit, Pocketpair wrote: “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.” Since then, Palworld has launched on Xbox consoles while a mobile version is also in development. 

Meanwhile Nintendo has used legal action to take down a number of fan-made videos from YouTube while work on Switch emulator Ryujinx has also halted.

In other news, Halo composer Martin O’Donnell has hit out at a new vinyl reissue of the original trilogy’s score, claiming musicians and performers won’t see any money from sales.

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