Amid ‘Pokémon’ Patent Lawsuit, Pocket Pair Removes Sphere-Throwing From ‘Palworld’ Summoning Mechanics
In a move that potentially provides insight into the current state of their ongoing patent battle with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, developer Pocket Pair has abruptly changed Palworld‘s summoning mechanics so as to no longer require that players complete the process of bringing out a new companion by physically throwing the Pal Sphere.
This change to Palworld‘s core gameplay was made on November 29th courtesy of the game’s v0.3.11 update.
Per its official Steam patch notes, the purpose of this update was to both change “the behaviour of summoning player-owned Pals so that they are always summoned near the player” and, as a result, update the UI so that the in-game “reticle will now only be displayed when aiming”).
In other words, whereas players would previously summon their Pals by throwing their containing ‘Pal Sphere’ and allowing the force of contact to trigger its opening function, they now simply hold out their Pal Sphere and summon their respective partner directly beside them.
However, in terms of actually catching said Pals, no changes have been made, and players must still throw the Pal Sphere in order to try and do so.
At current, Pocket Pair has yet to publicly address the reason behind their decision to make this change to Palworld.
And while there is a chance that it was simply done out of the dev team’s own creative choices (however slim that may be), the fact that the game’s ‘sphere throwing’ mechanic was one of the three at the center of Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s aforementioned patent infringement lawsuit.
As previously reported, this past September saw Nintendo file a lawsuit against Pocketpair alleging that in creating Palworld, the developer had infringed upon “multiple patent rights” related to various Pokémon game mechanics.
Though neither of the three entities initially provided any details as to which patents had been infringed, November 8th saw Pocket Pair confirm that the patents in question are those related to the presence of a ‘success rate’ indicator for catching monsters (patents No. 7545191), the act of redeploying said monsters to fight or gather resources (No. 7493117) and the use of various monsters as a means of transport, as well as the ability for the game to ‘auto-switch’ which monsters is being ridden depending on the current terrain. (Patent No. 7528390).
In a statement shared to their official website, the developer clinically explained, “The Plaintiffs [Nintendo and The Company] claim that Palworld, released by us on January 19, 2024, infringes upon the following three patents held by the Plaintiffs, and are seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit.”
“We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings. Please note that we will refrain from responding individually to inquiries regarding this case. If any matters arise that require public notice, we will announce them on our website, etc.,” Pocketpair concluded.
According to the developer, Nintendo and TPC are seeking “an injunction against Palworld” as well as a “payment of 5 million yen plus late payment damages” to both companies (in total amounting to roughly $65,500 USD).
To this end, between the lawsuit and the timing of Palworld losing its throwing mechanic, speculation suggests that, in a blow to indie video game development, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s legal maneuverings are proving super effective against Pocket Pair’s defense.
NEXT: ‘Palworld’ Is Getting A New Island And A Collaboration With ‘Terraria’
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