Palworld maker Pocketpair has confirmed that recent changes were forced on the game due to Nintendo’s ongoing lawsuit.
Palworld has had to make a number of changes to its core gameplay loop to avoid similarities with the Pokémon game franchise, largely due to an ongoing lawsuit from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. This week, game developer Pocketpair confirmed that while it continues “to dispute these claims and assert the invalidity of the patents in question,” Palworld will get a few more “compromises in order to avoid disruptions to the development and distribution of Palworld.”
In other words, the game is getting more changes to avoid any major resemblance to the Pokémon franchise.
Palworld maker confirms more changes are coming due to Nintendo lawsuit
This week, game developer Pocketpair released a statement regarding its ongoing Nintendo lawsuit, Palworld changes, and the future of its survival game. The developer began its statement by explaining that it is difficult “to be fully transparent while litigation is ongoing” as it is currently involved “in prolonged legal proceedings regarding alleged patent infringement.”
While Pocketpair is disputing these claims in courts, it does have to make “certain compromises” to keep Palworld’s development from getting disrupted. It then confirmed that an earlier patch released on 30 November, 2024 removed the Pal Sphere summoning mechanic among other changes due to this lawsuit, as speculated by everyone else at the time.
Pocketpair “was disappointed that this adjustment had to be made” but found it “necessary” to avoid “an even greater deterioration of the gameplay experience for players.” However, that won’t be the last of these changes to hit Palworld. In this week’s Patch v0.5.5, Palworld has also removed the ability to glide with Pals. Now, players will need an actual glider to glide, while Pals prove passive buffs to the traversal ability.
Pocketpair called this change “disappointing,” but once again necessary “to prevent further disruptions to the development of Palworld.” The game developer then apologised to fans for “the discomfort and concern” that the lawsuit has caused, affirming that the blame is ultimately to be placed on Nintendo, and promised new content to come in the game’s future.
