Japanese PS5 Release of ‘Palworld’ Seemingly Delayed Indefinitely Due To Nintendo And The Pokémon Company’s Patent Infringement Lawsuit
In further complicating matters for the popular creature collecting game, the legal battle between Palworld, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company, has led to an indefinite delay of its Japanese PlayStation 5 release.
Launched into Early Access for PC and Xbox players in January 2024, Palworld has been met with tremendous success, with the indie title going on to sell over 25 million copies worldwide (and post even more players thanks to its release to Xbox Game Pass).
However, the other side to this story is the game’s aesthetic and mechanical resemblance to the Pokemon franchise, with the latter in particular having led to Nintendo taking legal action against the developer, Pocketpair for patent infringement.
While the details of the lawsuit aren’t disclosed yet, there is a reason to believe that the major part of the lawsuit is the ball-catching mechanic, as well as several other related elements (such as a meter displaying a player’s ‘catch chances’).
On September 24th, Palworld was announced to be heading to the PlayStation 5, thus making it available for the more than 60 countries that use the console’s PlayStation Network service.
However, Japan remains out of reach due to the ongoing legal dispute.
And while developer Pocketpair has promised fans that they intent on responding to the lawsuit in a way as “to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas,” no official word has been given regarding their specific plans to bring the game to Japanese PS5 owners.
The game being unavailable in Japan, which is the second most popular market for active PC players, will most likely hinder Palworld‘s PS5 sales.
And to make matters worse, given how these kinds of lawsuits can last for months and even years – not to mention the dev time required to implement any potentially mandated design or mechanic changes – the game’s fate in Japan remains completely up in the air, meaning sales could suffer even further.
This indefinite delay could even result in the game never even reaching the Japanese market, as if Nintendo and TPC emerge victorious, there remains a stark possibility that Palworld could be forcefully shutdown all together, thus depriving PS5 players in the Land of the Rising Sun the chance to check it out.
Of course, should this be the way the lawsuit plays out, Pocketpair will likely be dealing with far dire consequences than just Palworld being made unavailable in Japan.
Meanwhile, the legal battle has had little to no effect on the game’s overall success, as players and their Pals located in one of the other 60+ countries where the game is available on PS5 are continuing their monster catching journeys.
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