Pocketpair has published its response to the lawsuit filed by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company. The Tokyo-based indie game company has stated that it will begin legal proceedings while investigating the latter companies’ claims of infringement of patents related to Pokemon against the former’s game Palworld.
In its statement, Pocketpair noted that Palworld had been a surprise hit for the company. The game had been garnering attention since its initial reveal in June 2021. It ultimately recorded over 5 million downloads within the first weekend after its Early Access launch in January 2024 while setting a new concurrent players record on Steam.
However, Palworld players also noted that the game has a number of close similarities with Pokemon. That also spurred The Pokemon Company to start investigating the game in late January 2024. The investigation eventually led to the company working with Nintendo to file a lawsuit against Pocketpair on September 18, 2024.
While Pocketpair will now have to allocate a good portion of its time to deal with this lawsuit, the indie company also promises that it will not stop improving Palworld. It also wants to ensure the retention of creative freedom for indie game developers as it defends itself in this lawsuit.
Pocketpair has also shared a copy of the statement on the official English X account for Palworld:
Palworld is available worldwide on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, as well as macOS and Windows PCs.
Published: Sep 19, 2024 09:00 am