Image: Push Square

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company Want to Stop the Sale of Palworld

Claims the game infringes on its patents

by · Push Square
Game Profile

https://images.pushsquare.com/dec8c84f9b4bf/palworld-cover.cover_small.jpg
Title:
Palworld
System:
PlayStation 5
Also Available For:
Xbox Series X|S
Publisher:
Pocketpair
Developer:
Pocketpair
Genre:
Action, Adventure
Players:
1 (4 Online)
Release Date:
PlayStation Store
https://static.pushsquare.com/themes/base/images/flags/us.gif 24th Sep 2024, $29.99
https://static.pushsquare.com/themes/base/images/flags/eu.gif 24th Sep 2024, £24.49
Official Site:
palworld.co
Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org
Where to buy:
Buy on Amazon

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are seeking an injunction which will block the sale of Palworld, it’s been revealed.

Earlier this year, just days prior to the indie game’s PS5 release, the Mario maker filed a patent lawsuit against developer Pocketpair – and now we have more details about what it entails.

As expected, the Japanese patents the developer is accused of infringing upon revolve around gameplay mechanics, like catching Pokémon in a virtual field and riding on top of them. Both of these systems are present in Palworld, as you use Pal Spheres to nab monsters in the open world, which can then be used as mounts.

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News Sony Music Japan Is Working to Make Palworld More Popular Than Ever

That's despite the lack of a PS5 port

Interestingly, as far as we can tell, all three patents were registered after the game’s original 19th January, 2024 release date. However, they do pertain to a pre-established patent filed in 2021.

Nevertheless, both Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are seeking an injunction to stop sales of the game, and ¥5 million (~$33,000) compensation apiece.

Pocketpair, to its credit, says it’ll fight the lawsuit: “We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.”

Sony, of course, will have a vested interest in the outcome, as it recently signed a partnership with the developer to establish a separate entity named Palworld Entertainment, tasked with growing the brand through merchandise, anime, and various other media tie-ins.

[source ign.com]

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About Sammy Barker

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.

Comments 69

This has peaked my interest in Palworld. Depends on how MIRACULOUS the PS5 Pro boost is...

Patenting game mechanics should be illegal.

I myself haven't played Palworld but I've heard good things about it, but this lawsuit is stupid, and patenting game mechanics kill inspirations for their own spin on said mechanics.

We'll never know what was the story behind Jenshin Switch edition now won't we?

Added late context: Given how similar it resembles Zelda entry at the time, it never materialised after being announced. Nothing happened towards Square's Foamstars. However Palworld's success just happened to be the last nerve for Nintendo, in my opinion.
If it's ain't good, let the public boycott. Otherwise, oh boy, ready the big guns.
Always the same story everywhere everytime, even into the future 🍿

The patents are very broad and also were filed AFTER Palworld came out. This seems like nothing more Nintendo flexing their muscles and also try to tie up PP in legal proceedings.

If they was filed after then there isn’t anything Nintendo can do 🤷🏻‍♂️

You use ‘Pal Spheres’ to catch monsters? Legally they might be alright but come on, that’s Pokemon all over right?

One of the patents is apparently for "throwing item to catch character", which... c'mon...

Removed - inappropriate language

Nintendo are the biggest cancer in gaming and I won’t be told otherwise, they’re brutes and bullies.

I wonder if The Pokémon company is aware about Sujimon in Like A Dragon series?!

@Jacko11 the info on Nintendo Life suggests that there is a parent patent that was filed earlier that means they do have a case.

Might be a regional law though.

Nintendo need to stop with this. One of the elements they have a patent on is supposedly 'riding creatures in the environment'.

How many games could that cover? Is a horse a creature? What about the robots in Horizon?

Stifling creativity for profit.

So Pokemon copying Dragon Quest is ok but Pal word copying Pokemon is the end of humanity? What would games look like today if no game was ever allowed to take anything from another game!?

Removed - off-topic

Let's hope it's just a performative lawsuit, to deter others from flying to close to the "Pokemon sun", that they settle under the table. Because if they win...oh boy. 😬

@Khwarezm89 Moon Channel theorises that this is entirely about Sony's partnership with Palword. He argues this is breaking some Japanese business taboos. And that whilst Sony seems hands-off, it's actually a very similar move to what Nintendo did with Game freak.

This is Nintendo signalling they'll go for the nuclear option if Sony gets on their turf.

@Medic_alert You're right, I just read that and have added that additional context to the article.

@Medic_alert yeah I think they’ll have more luck in Japan but as for Europe/US it could be a push.

They have money and the best lawyers though so who knows what could happen.

@Khwarezm89 Yakuza LAD constantly credits Dragon Quest too 😅 which must sting even more.

I hope Square just throw themselves into the mix and back Palworld in their case, seeing as Pokemon ripped them off, and then maybe get Sega to come along too, seeing as Nintendo seem to be acting like they are run by the Yakuza and Sega have dibs on that franchise 😅

@AfroMario it's pretty MIRACULOUS on FF, Horizon, Demon's and Stellar Blade so if that is the condition Palworld already won this lol.

@Jacko11 I did some UK patent law for my degree and would agree that some of this on its face appears to struggle legally.

Interestingly though I'm not sure they'd even get the patents for those in the UK. A patent has to be innovative, I.e. something new or an improvement on something old.

I don't think some of this meets that criteria, it is also all a bit general and non-specific, albeit that the actual documents may give more detail.

I does feel like Nintendo throwing their weight around a bit because of the obvious influence pokemon has had on Palworld.

@MasterVGuides They were actually patented well before Palworld came out, they were just renewed/revised so it looks like it was after.

Honestly if Palworld did something wrong, then yes, Nintendo has every right to pursue legal action. Like it or not. Plus Pocket Pal is notorious for being scummy as hell. So I don’t see why everyone is quick to side with them who are in the wrong. While that apparent “riding mechanic” seems a bit of a stretch, if there’s other patents infringed on, Nintendo has the right to sue.

And Pokemon copied Megami Tensei.

Nintendo love being the killer of parties.

@LavenderShroud the reason people are siding with Pocket pal is more to do with the principle of trying to lock down particular game mechanics.

Forever, games have learned from and built off of ideas from other games and often great things have sprouted from that.

What if Nintendo had successfully patented power ups items? Or platforming itself?

What about characters with swords? Or just all elven characters?

Ultimately, it stops anyone else using similar ideas and stops progression and innovation in the industry. Something which already feels at a bit of a low ebb.

If Nintendo wins this then the games industry is over. Any game with mechanics even remotely similar to another company's game's mechanics will be pulled depending on who filed the patent first. Astro Bot a little too similar to Mario? Bye bye Astro Bot. Ubisoft making Nintendo pull the 2 most recent Zelda games due to their mechanics around map progression when activating towers... etc etc. Nintendo trying their best to ruin the industry all because they decided to lazily pump out the same Pokémon game over and over for the last 20 years.

The patents they filed after Palworld had already been on sale? It may work in Japan as their patent laws are different but good luck in Europe and America.

A wild, crazy thought for Pokemon and Nintendo. Perhaps if they took their time and asked another team other than GameFreak to make a Pokemon game that is actually good and not a festering dog turd stuff like Palworld wouldn't get the traction it gets.

People are desperare for a good Pokemon game but Nintendo continues to spit on them.

@Medic_alert Except you can’t exactly patent stuff like that…Pretty sure sword characters and elves in games existed long before Nintendo made games with them. Like on Atari…

This is one game by a notoriously bad company. It’s not going to turn the entire industry upside down. There’s TONS of monster catching games. Yet they’re all perfectly fine and even available, and a couple were even promoted by Nintendo on their Indie Showcases.

I'm no patent attorney, but this seems like Pokemon Company and Nintendo throwing their weight around to me. Catchable mounts... I mean countless other games do this? Are they going to go after Red Dead Redemption 2 next?

@LavenderShroud being done before doesn't necessarily stop someone patenting something though - especially as a lot of IP law ends up being pretty random when it comes to practice.

But it isn't about 1 game. If Nintendo win then every creature capturing mechanic that looks vaguely similar is potentially on the block. Every game where you 'ride a creature' the same.

As I said it is the principle. It stifles creativity and creates fear that if your game strays too close to a game that may influence it, you could lose it all.

@Medic_alert Would also be tough to get those patents in the U.S. My understanding is patent prosecution in Japan is much more lax. Also possible in this situation is that a very simple version of the story has been reported and parroted so many times the actual crux of the lawsuit is completely lost. This actually happens a lot. Law is complicated and it’s much easier to farm SEO clicks with an article that has a basic rage inducing headline.

@Jacko11 the case is happening in Japan.

@QwarktasticLombax You can pursue patent infringement after a product has launched in the U.S. That’s usually when it happens and if found guilty of infringement it’s a divestment of profits argument.

@QwarktasticLombax actually the parent patent they filed was filed back in 2021, well before Palworld came out. So it’s completely valid and legal.

And this case is happening in Japan.

@Medic_alert “Stifles creativity”? Isn’t the guy behind the company on record for saying he’d rather just steal from other games than do anything original?

Plus there’s so many games inspired by others. Seems like there’s a new Metroidvania game every week lately. It’s fine to be inspired by something, just not copy it as close as you can. Which is basically what this is about.

Also the “ride a creature” mechanic is apparently more in depth in that the patent is about riding them in specific environments to perform certain tasks, probably like Sun & Moon.

I’m not necessarily siding with Nintendo per se, just more pointing out the fact that they are within reason to sue Pocket Pal.

@LavenderShroud btw, one of their games looks very similar to Hollow Knight.

@LavenderShroud Great observations. IP law walks a fine line to encourage innovation while protecting previous innovations. Palworld is a bad faith product in my opinion and if I owned Pokémon I would go after it as well. Also, like I previously said you are correct, the patent is likely infinitely more complex than the reporting on it.

@IamJT yeah a lot of people here (and on NL) do not quite understand this whole situation. If you want, I suggest that you read the user on NL named HeadPirate’s explanation on this matter. I think it is quite well researched and perfectly explained.

I know this is a Sony site. But I'll de damned if Nintendo isn't the worst when it comes to most things in gaming. No price decreases, lawsuits galore, and no new and exciting IPs in the last 25 years (personal opinion).

@anoyonmus I will check it out! I get a weekly email from the state Bar with IP articles only a matter of time until I get a well researched article on it! Just bothers me with reporting in general is the lack of actual context followed by the comments section going off with random hot take opinions with no understanding. Such is life though.

They're like a spoilt kid that tantrums when one doesn't get what they want, ridiculous.

They're after the developers of Palworld because of patent they filed AFTER the game was released. That's incredibly scummy and it's just the big guy bullying the small one.

I'm sorry to be extreme, but Nintendo can go step on a Lego.

@LavenderShroud and I'm not siding with Pocket Pal. I'm simply saying that throwing your weight around in this way frightens off people working on projects similar to existing IP and so they never evolve.

Much like Pokemon has struggled to do.

@IamJT totally agree and whatever our experiences we are all playing armchair lawyer without full possession of the facts.

Not to be taken too seriously.

Isn't it ironic that Nintendo only filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair when they were acquired by Sony?

This video explains very well why Nintendo is suing Pocketpair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8apzrwv75i0

spoiler: it's all about Sony. Nintendo doesn't want Sony to have their own Pokemon.

@KawakiisaFraud Sony don't own Pocketpair.

@KawakiisaFraud When did Sony own Pocketpair???

I don't recall that. Because THEY NEVER DID.

Nintendo is an organization founded in a yakuza den specializing in making laundered cards for illegal gambling. It's not like their history isn't informative of who they are lol

We're talking about an organization that as soon as Japan was beaten in the war and surrendered, while most of Japan resented their new foreign provisional government and occupying forces, Hiroshi Yamuchi ran to the provisional government to secure an exclusivity contract on selling playing cards to the occupiers. Nintendo never changes.

"Like catching Pokémon in a virtual field and riding on top of them"

So catching creatures / animals and riding on top of them is a big no? There's like tons of games who has this mechanic, some of them are Horizon and RDR. I guess Nintendo wants to sue Sony and R* too?

Really rooting for Palword

@DonJorginho agreed! Their fanboys is the most childish. Defending the big corpo like the company care for them. Lmao 🤣

Nintendo has ALWAYS been a scumbag company. People give them a pass for no reason. Between their gimmicks and making the same games over and over, nobody should be really defending them.

@KawakiisaFraud You do realize Nintendo is working WITH Sony to produce a Legend of Zelda movie, right? This lawsuit has ZERO to do with them.

@IamJT I just feel it’s more important to be factual and point things out rather than let everyone suddenly pick up their pitchforks over something so vague.

@LavenderShroud Nintendo is also being very generous with the amount they're asking apparently. But lets ignore that shall we.

@LavenderShroud as a lawyer with significant amount of IP work under my belt I agree 🤣

@LavenderShroud Nintendo shouldn't be able to patent anything that they are suing for here is the thing. Palworld is basically a parody of Pokemon.

@Jaz007 parody implicates copyright and free speech not patent law.

@LavenderShroud finally someone who gets it.

@beltmenot lot of people don't even understand. They judged way too early.

The way Sony has been hitting so many L's of late... it would seem to me almost a foregone conclusion that after going all in with the PalWorld brand (edit: and their partnership with PocketPair); it's almost certainly to be banned; and Sony left with all the investment liability and little of the initial success. Not withstanding any love for the PS5 Pro atm... (which let's face it... the situation with disc drives is yet another L)... I think Sony has been making some questionable business judgements. More than normal.

Do many people here actually play PalWorld? I don't, but I also don't hear much about it at all. It seems to me the lack of Game Pass-style vibe has really kept a lid on the hype.

Edit - it came in at #10 on the October download charts for PSN... just ahead of Metaphor Refantazio and Space Marine 2... so it was reasonably popular; but not a mega drop for Sony

The world of gaming needs to come together in a collective to fight Nintendo on this

This is stupid, you don't see Wildcard/Snails Games knocking down their door or others that were inspired by them do you? No Nintendo/Pokemon company because of nonsense competition they see fit to fight on. Bunch of children they are crying over this, it's disgusting.

Palworld has more in common with Ark Survival Evolved (because I play survival games and look around at game mechanics and other things or what inspired what) as if it's skill tree.

To it's tweaks/quality of life over Ark, the Zelda/Pokemon inspiration as well, other Indies have Nintendo game similarities/inspiration but they are so small in comparison it doesn't matter.

How many racing games use rewind systems to make a comparison. Alfa Romeo Racing Italiano started it and with an RPG system, never got expanded upon at all. Grid 2008 took rewinds (without the RPG system) and had 0-5 to scale it. Forza Motorsport 3 simplified it again and then added more better tracking to situations to use it. It's been that way for 20+ years, you don't see Milestone or any other studio/publisher going after them for that.

Namco didn't bother with Test Drive having it's games in loading screens and Namco only used it with 2 IPs anyways then it went away but no one cared to offer minigames in loading screens so what a worthy patent then.

Any other pattents. WB Nemesis, Grid Nemesis system, they act differently, called the same thing...... Hmmmmmmm....

But because Palworld makes a lot of money they JUST HAVE TO FIGHT THEM ON IT. It's so stupid. Once they are a big enough threat they take action. Nintendo are such babies/children and Pokemon Company especially they need the money this year so badly. Who will think of the corporations. XD

While PS/Xbox haven't given me a single reason to buy games or their consoles Nintendo's business practices are still hilarious to witness as always even if I focus on retro PS/Xbox & Switch and older.

Repeat, yet you don't see Wildcard/Snails Games knocking down their door or others that were inspired by them do you?

Nintendo/Pokemon Company wanting to go oh creatures, oh catching monsters oh a threat to us getting so much money out of it (as if Pokemon isn't the the biggest or one of entertainment IPs out there, the greedy companies), give us money because your so big and competitive in some particular way so knock the competition down while we make rushed products and don't care how we get money/if we fix it over time because we got our launch sales anyway by desperate customers.

Tell that to the Pixelmon mod for Minecraft, or bottles/other mechanics to capture mobs because it's easier then herding them all the time, there as well?Too small to notice. The WB Nemesis system when Grid series has it's own but it's a racing game and not the same code/structure but same name so it's fine?

People wanting control/more money for something so trivial. It's so stupid.

As if games don't have enough copy paste nostalgia or popular game laziness of inspiration then better original prototyping or trend following so much that the competition of it being pushed so close together is why I don't even buy products anymore is because they are too safe, because creatives are so weak, customers don't really care about game mechanics it's why we get so many game mechanic safe games these days.

Well.. i am afraid i am with Nintendo on this one. It's clear Palworld is riding on the coattails of pokemon to gain notoriety.
Though i think the patents are nonsense. It's just the visual style of the game that clearly rips off pokemon.

I am still surprised it's mechanic parents and not design parents. From the obvious by looking and the comparisons that were made, it really seemed like copyright infringement in some way on that.

I never had any interest in this game and it seems edgy for the sake of it. Nothing looked fun to me about it and it seems like the "cool" thing to do is for people to defend it. I do see a clear Pokeball copy to be a copy and they are notorious for legal action so "nobody thinks they can get away with it". But, they do care about their image and someone couple get it thinking it is a Pokemon game and that could hurt their image to those people.

There are many games that feature creatures being captured in some kind of device and don't get me started on games that feature Mounts. I'm totally convinced had Palworld not received the attention it did then it's very possible Nintendo wouldn't have cared at all.

I'm 100% against Nintendo here. If they win the ramifications going forward could be enormous.

The problem is they want to patient a general concept rather then a particular idea. You can patient a name like Pokemon or Palworld, but you can't just patient the concept of Pokemon, original called pocket monsters. Various phones developers sue and are sued because someone creates a phone that uses a particular patient they have for a very specific item. And even then sometimes times the patient is ruled valid and sometimes they are ruled invalid.

“ riding creatures in the environment”

I guess Nintendo think they have rights over RDR, RDR2, Horizon and any other game you ride a creature.

What a joke that company is.

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