Palworld Forced to Make Changes Due to Nintendo and The Pokemon Company Lawsuit - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 4 days ago / 1,860 Views
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company in September 2024 filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
The developer has been forced to make changes to Palworld due to the lawsuit.
An update on November 30, 2024, removed the ability to summon Pals by throwing Pal Spheres and changed it to a static summon next to the player. Patch v0.5.5 will also see another compromise that will no longer allow players to glide using a Pal.
Read the update from Pocketpair below:
[Regarding the lawsuit, changes to Palworld and the future]
We would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the continued support of our fans over the past few months. We apologize for not being able to share as much information as we would like, but we trust our fans understand how difficult it is to be fully transparent while litigation is ongoing.
Currently, we remain involved in prolonged legal proceedings regarding alleged patent infringement. We continue to dispute these claims and assert the invalidity of the patents in question. However, we have had to make certain compromises in order to avoid disruptions to the development and distribution of Palworld.
On November 30th, 2024, we released Patch v0.3.11 for Palworld. This patch removed the ability to summon Pals by throwing Pal Spheres and instead changed it to a static summon next to the player. Several other game mechanics were also changed with this patch. As many have speculated, these changes were indeed a result of the ongoing litigation. Everyone here at Pocketpair was disappointed that this adjustment had to be made, and we fully understand that many players feel the same frustration. Unfortunately, as the alternative would have led to an even greater deterioration of the gameplay experience for players, it was determined that this change was necessary.
Furthermore, we regret to inform our players that with the implementation of Patch v0.5.5, we must make yet another compromise. From this patch onward, gliding will be performed using a glider rather than with Pals. Pals in the player's team will still provide passive buffs to gliding, but players will now need to have a glider in their inventory in order to glide.
We understand that this will be disappointing for many, just as it is for us, but we hope our fans understand that these changes are necessary in order to prevent further disruptions to the development of Palworld.
We also want to extend our apologies to our fans for the discomfort and concern this ongoing litigation has caused. We remain committed to developing Palworld and delivering exciting new content to our fans.
On behalf of everyone at Pocketpair and Team Palworld, thank you again for your continued support.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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