Palworld dev confirms PlayStation 5 release date in Japan “not yet decided”

One of the big reveals during Sony’s State of Play on September 24 was the shadow drop of Palworld for PlayStation 5.

Pocketpair’s action-adventure/survival hybrid, which has been available in early access on Steam since January, allows players to capture Pals and work together with them to battle, explore dungeons, build, and craft.

In a translated September 25 X/Twitter post, they confirmed that Palworld’s global deployment on PlayStation 5 had stopped short of reaching Japan, stating that a release date had “not yet been decided.”

“We apologize to everyone in Japan who was looking forward to it, but all our staff will do our best to deliver it to PS5 users as soon as possible,” the statement continued, adding “we hope you will wait for a little longer.”

The post did not explain the delay in Japan, but the most likely cause is legal action levied against Pocketpair. On September 19, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company confirmed that they had jointly filed a lawsuit against the Palworld creator, alleging patent infringement.

While it features fundamentally distinct gameplay, Palworld has frequently been compared to the Pokemon franchise, especially regarding the similarity in some designs between Pals and Pokemon.

This lawsuit specifically disputes a patent infringement rather than relating to copyright, however, so for now, at least, Nintendo and TPC don’t appear to be seeking to make the case that Pals are too similar to Pocket Monsters.

Despite that, on September 21, a former Palworld designer alleged that, during Palworld’s development, they were asked to “Design a creature that would rank in the top 100 Pokemon in terms of popularity” and had designs changed without their permission.

For further reading, check out our full timeline of the events as well as our article that goes into more depth about what constitutes patent infringement.