Nintendo Lawsuit Halts Palworld PS5 Release in Japan

Gamers worldwide rejoiced when Palworld finally made it to the PlayStation 5… with one major exception.

The official English account’s jubilant announcement of the release was followed by an apologetic note from its Japanese counterpart announcing the game was not coming out for PlayStation 5 in the region yet.

This setback comes less than a week after Nintendo filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair over Pokémon similarities, leading to rampant speculation that the two incidents are related.

Palworld caused a media storm when it came out in January this year. Along with the flood of new users came comparisons with major titles, particularly Pokémon and Fortnite.

If the Fortnite comparisons were more stylistic, Palworld did little to dispel its “Pokémon With Guns” moniker. While most pals were originals, many looked more than just inspired by Pokémon.

Legal experts believe the lawsuit may go well beyond character appearances, though.

Patent Warfare

Nintendo and Pocketpair have traded barbs since release, but the dispute only went legal on September 18, when Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court.

The corporate press release mentions “multiple patent rights” infringements, but does not offer specifics.

Japanese IP attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara has narrowed down the likely items Nintendo says were infringed, and the list may shed light on why it took the Pokémon owners so long to act.

The timeline is simple enough: Palworld comes out in January, Nintendo files patent 7545191 in June and requests expedited review, it goes live in August, and Nintendo sues Pocketpair in September.

According to Kurihara, patent 7545191 describes game mechanisms where you capture a creature by aiming at it with an analog stick and button press, followed by a check that determines whether the target ownership changes to the player.

Two other patents filed together with 7545191 go deeper into the specifics of the capture mechanism, and a third one relates to riding creatures (which, as you may have guessed, is also a central part of Palworld).

The fact that Nintendo filed the patents half a year after the release of Palworld is inconsequential as Japanese patent law works on a first-to-file basis. In other words, even if you invent something first, ownership belongs to whoever filed the patent.

The Future is Patented

The relatively broad language used by Nintendo in the filings has raised alarms in the gaming industry, with some developers worrying that these will be used maliciously to attack competitors.

These patents are only valid in Japan so the scope of trouble they can cause, be it to Palworld or other games, is geographically limited.

Pocketpair is determined to wrap up the legal dispute and release the PS5 version of Palworld in Japan soon, but legal proceedings may be lengthy.

Until that comes, Japanese Palworld fans are stuck with the PC version.