'Pokémon with guns' game 'Palworld' hit with inevitable Nintendo lawsuit

Today in news everyone saw coming, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are suing "Pokémon with guns" game Palworld. In less likely news, the lawsuit might have nothing to do with the creatures' designs.

Palworld made headlines when it launched in early access this January, with many describing the open world survival game as "Pokémon with guns." This comparison was prompted by Palworld's titular Pals, distinctly Pokémon-like creatures that players can battle, catch in Pokéball-like "Pal Spheres," and equip with firearms. The Pokémon Company stated its intention to investigate and "address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights" at the time, though it didn't refer to Palworld or its developer and publisher Pocketpair by name.

Now the company has directly called Pocketpair out, joining Nintendo in filing a lawsuit for patent infringement to the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday.

"This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights," Nintendo wrote in a brief press release.

It isn't clear exactly what patents Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are accusing Pocketpair of infringing. Many players have previously noted startling similarities between Pokémon and Palworld's creature designs, with some 3D modellers even directly comparing both games' character models and speculating that they were too much alike for it to be a coincidence. Pocketpair has consistently denied all allegations of stealing assets.

However, the fact that Nintendo is bringing Pocketpair to court over patent infringement rather than copyright issues suggests that elements of Pokémon and Palworld's gameplay may come under scrutiny instead. While copyright covers creative design elements like Pikachu's appearance, patents apply to technical innovations such as gameplay mechanics.

It's unlikely Nintendo will argue that only they're allowed to catch fantasy creatures and make them fight, though. While Pokémon popularised the monster-catching genre in the West, it's far from the first game to use such mechanics. Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe previously claimed Palworld drew inspiration from Dragon Quest, a Japanese game series whose monster-catching mechanics predated Pokémon by several years. The introduction of creature recruitment in Dragon Quest V was further preceded by Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei series.

"Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years," Nintendo said.

In a statement to Mashable, a spokesperson from The Pokémon Company said it "refrain[s] from commenting on the matters related to the content of the lawsuit."

Mashable has also reached out to Nintendo and Pocketpair for comment.

Nintendo is an infamously litigious company, having a long history of taking action against people for creating fanworks, hosting console emulators, and even streaming their games. In 2017 the company filed a lawsuit against Tokyo go-kart business MariCar, successfully claiming that it infringed on Nintendo's copyright by leasing costumes of Mario Kart characters to customers.

MariCar has since rebranded to Street Kart, and displays a prominent disclaimer on its website that it "is in no way a reflection of Nintendo, [or] the game Mario Kart," and "[does] not provide rental of costumes of Mario Series."

Many of these Nintendo-disapproved activities seem relatively harmless, or even expressions of affection for the company's characters. Though considering Nintendo's reputation for child-friendly entertainment, it's unsurprising that the multi-billion dollar company is unenthusiastic about anything that could potentially tarnish it, whether that's go-kart crashes or guns.

UPDATE: Sep. 20, 2024, 12:39 p.m. AEST This article has been updated with comment from The Pokémon Company.