Palworld fans lash out at Nintendo following major lawsuit

Palworld fans have rallied behind developer Pocketpair who faces a lawsuit from the famously litigious Nintendo.

The moment that many feared has come. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have banded together to lay a patent infringement lawsuit at the feet of Palworld developer Pocketpair.

Since the release of what fans lovingly call ‘Pokemon with guns’, Palworld has faced accusations of plagiarising Pokemon designs. In fairness, there are some striking similarities between certain Pals and Pokemon. Despite this, Nintendo only offered a brief response and for a long time, Pocketpair heard nothing from their camp.

That is until September 18, 2024, when Nintendo and The Pokemon Company finally took action. Hours later PocketPair issued an official response to the lawsuit in an X post. At the same time, Palworld players have been quick to criticize Nintendo for the move.

While it’s odd calling what was once Steam’s second-most played game of all time ‘the little guy’, when faced against the billion-dollar behemoth of Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, Palworld certainly looks like that. This is the prevailing sentiment amongst many fans of Pocketpair’s take on monster taming, many of whom view this as Nintendo punching down.

“Gamefreak puts out consistent slop for a decade. Palworld embarrasses them, Nintendo wastes money suing Palworld instead of using the billions earned by Pokemon to make good games,” one player complained on X. “Yeah Nintendo is washed, Palworld is more fun than any Pokemon game on the Switch,” another user concurred.

Many comments echoing these sentiments are clear references to the launch state of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet which were plagued by bugs. In a Reddit thread that has since had its comments locked, fans of Palworld called out what they perceived to be a “d**k move” from Nintendo.

“Had to make sure Pocketpair actually made some real money before they could come try and get a free lunch,” one Palworld player speculated. “Palworld has made enough money to be seen as competition, so [Nintendo] strike them after they’ve lost a chunk of what they gained in the hopes of bankrupting them,” another agreed.

Despite the numerous detractions of Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, other users have pointed to what they’re calling the “blatant plagiarism” of Pokemon designs in Palworld as justification for the lawsuit.

It should be noted that the lawsuit itself accuses Pocketpair of patent infringement which is generally related to software in gaming as opposed to characters. Details are still sparse on the legal action itself and it’s currently unclear whether Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have taken action regarding Palworld’s designs, or if it’s in relation to something more subtle.