Palworld's Japan Release On PS5 Delayed As Nintendo's Lawsuit Looms

Sad, such a great game to get delayed. Hopefully it is still at least available on PC for them.

Wouldn't be surprised if it never got released on PS5 in Japan.

@Preposterous Why? It's already out in Japan, at least on Xbox & PC

Team Nintendo or Team Palword. Bella can only choose one.

It was humorous watching Palworld get revealed for PS5 when the suit was announced.

Hoping they settle out of court soon so we can go back to not having this game in the headlines every other day.

I find it funny how comments are sad for Japanese players when the majority of Japan and its players hate Palworld and what it represents in their culture. Try reading the replies under Japanese Palworld twitter account, gonna give you a whiplash if you're cheering for Pocket Pair to win this. If anything most of them are probably glad it's not coming over.

Anyways, hope Nintendo buries this lazy unoriginal slop. And yes I think Pokemon games are bad nowadays, it doesn't make Palworld any better.

I'm just not sure what Nintendo is fighing here. It's not a copyright claim and this game is essentially a survival game and not a turn-based RPG. Other than the monsters looking like Pokemon, this game couldn't be any more different than Pokemon games.

What patents is Palword breaking? Monster collecting? I mean, Ni No Kuni has monster collecting. Doesn't Digimon have monster collecting?

I am sure there are a ton of games where you capture monsters to use as allies to fight for you that haven't been put on a chopping block.

I'm not trying to take a side, I don't truly understand what Nintendo is after if it's not going after copyright claims with the character designs.

If Palworld is in the wrong, then I am sure they can make some changes to the game to no longer be in the wrong. If Nintendo is clutching at straws because of Palworld's success, then shame on Nintendo.

@Itachi2099 Well you know us westerns. We tend believe every culture thinks just like us. Why else do we go out way to tell others they're wrong and we're right?

@GamingFan4Lyf
They wouldn’t have bothered doing this if they didn’t have something concrete, the patent laws are a better avenue of attack rather than attempting to go after the cheap knockoff character designs. It will probably end up like what happened with Yuzu where the case they had was damming enough to force a settlement rather than going to trial.

@SalvorHardin I am sure Nintendo wouldn't just send out the "Law Squad" without concrete evidence...but what is it?!

And why not simply reach out to Palworld team and say - hey, my dudes, this particular feature in your game is patented by us - patch it out or we'll take you to court!

I don't play Palworld - so I don't know all the ins and outs of the game. But from what I did see, only the creature designs resembled anything close to Pokemon and the rest was your cookie-cutter survival game (e.g. Ark).

I mean, does anyone here play Palworld to explain what exactly Nintendo is going after with the game that resembles anything close to Pokemon game mechanics?

Sincerely hope Pocket Pair defeats this frivolous nonsense. And this is coming from someone who doesn't care to play Palworld.

Nintendo should focus on making an actual good Pokémon game. It has been a long time

You know damn well this website is going to milk this topic dry lmao.

@GamingFan4Lyf I think Nintendo didn't do that cuz it doesn't wanna show them any courtesy. Why? Because what they're doing is basically considered disrespectful.

If you read the comments of Japanese people on the game, the way how blatant Pocket Pair are with the game and its promotion of it as a "Pokemon with guns" - it's basically insulting to them and they view it as something that is done in extremely poor taste to Nintendo and it's legacy.

Same with the CEO of Pocket Pair, he's constantly clowned on twitter by Japanese people because of his own comments about how lazy he is, that he doesn't wanna make anything original and wants to just reuse concepts, designs and ideas from other people to make a viral game.

There's even an anecdote going around of him visiting a Nintendo Seminar in early 2010s and him quitting it because "Nintendo is too much about originality and creativity" and he didn't want that.

@GamingFan4Lyf I think it's been said many many times in the last week but I don't think you can patent game mechanics. It's not like anyone has patented shooting a fireball or gun or somethin, there's hundreds of games that can do that and the "mechanic" is basically exactly the same for each one. I don't know why so many people think Nintendo is after people for copying game mechanics but I think they would've tried suing a lot more game creators before Palworld devs...

It's not surprising, Pocket Pair is known for copying ideas of other games so I'm not surprise Palworld got them into this mess with Nintendo and Pokemon. This is why the Japanese audience doesn't take them seriously. You could only make a few similarities until you cross the line.

https://x.com/robin_badguy/status/1836848312433184853
https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2024/09/21/japanese-fans-are-siding-with-nintendo-over-the-pocket-pair-lawsuit/

@Itachi2099 I mean, okay, so the dude is a scumbag and lazy. But "this dude is a copycat" doesn't exactly hold up in court when so many games have borrowed ideas from other games without reprimand. "This dude stole assets" is different.

All I want to know is what exactly Nintendo is going after.

I don't care about opinions.

I just want to know what Nintendo can legally go after for a survival game if it's not going after copyright claims due to character designs. Poketpair thumbing their nose at Nintendo and Nintendo being angry about it isn't illegal.

@DripDropCop146 : Still a better Pokémon game than Scarlet/Violet. 😜

@GamingFan4Lyf I usually never want to recommend 5lotham's video (as most of his videos are just rants of other YouTubers and companies) but I think he knew exactly what Nintendo is going after with Palworld here. Remember they are getting sue for patent infringement, not copyright infringement so even if Palworld looking similar to Pokemon is a non-issue, there are other mechanics that are.

@Serpenterror Thank you.

No, I get it. I am just wondering what patents this game is breaking since it's a survival game and not a turn-based RPG where you collect monsters you fight.

I didn't know what "patents" this came could possible break being an ENTIRELY different game than Pokemon games since Nintendo isn't going after copyright.

Pocket Pair should just make their main office somewhere in Europe or the US and their Japanese staff work "remotely" and sell the game outside Japan.

They're earning bank here anyway, so if the Japanese patent legal system wants to be absolutely backwards and corrupt, let them have their market stifled. It'll come back to bite Nintendo in the ass soon anyway, since there's sharks with far bigger banks than them and patents they could slam them with internationally if they wanted to (read: look up Microsoft's software patents)

It's also humorous to see people regurgitate the same ad nauseam tweets with a few screenshots showing how Pocket Pair ripped off someone else, when you could do the same for 99.9% of every souls-like out there. Or kart racer. And on and on. That stuff is weak and means nothing without contextual details.

I tend to side with Nintendo on copyright suits, but on this patent suit I won't. Inherently shifty to patent software and gameplay mechanics, there's no two ways about it.

@axelhander Doesn't matter if you care or not, the thing is Pocket Pair think that they are the exception to the rule and now they are facing reality. If they are isolated in China then maybe they had a better chance of not getting target but since they are in Japan they had to face the consequences of their ways. You don't just cross the line with your peers and think you could get away with it. If they win then that would be a surprise knock to Pokemon and many other creative devs, if they lose then they see the error of their ways and just change for the better.

@Itachi2099 Well I read a handful of comments, and it seemed to be mixed comments on the situation, from people who really wants the game, confused on their decision, joking about them getting more money for the lawsuit, disappointed on how they are handling the situation like saying they should release it after the dispute for example, criticizing the design/originality, etc. So I think your comment is a bit bias on hating on the game and acting like most people in Japan hates the game when that isn't really true? Hate is a strong word, and I wouldn't use that word for this situation imo.

We're with you Pals!

@Serpenterror Okay, now I understand.

Though, again, there are plenty of other games that have a monster catching component where you weaken enemy and then charm it or some other "not a Pokeball" technique. And then they are summoned in a "not using a Pokeball" way. The concept is still very similar, though.

I mean...all Pocketpair really has to do is change the way "catching" works. It's a spell. It's a tablet. It's...something else other than a ball. Heck, it's a bloody vacuum cleaner to catch and a rocket launcher to summon!

I dunno, I feel like, if Nintendo wins, this will open up a nasty can of worms. It's not necessarily because I support Pocketpair but because I think it will give Nintendo too much power to go after a lot of other games that have similar gameplay mechanics to Nintendo IP - especially since Nintendo is the most bullish company when it comes to protecting their IP.

What's next - Nintendo patents the Mario's jumping mechanics and then goes after any other platform title because they are infringing upon that mechanic?

"You have a 3D wall jump to your character?! Sorry, that's ours!"

@IceEarthGuard no what you're doing it proping up the small outliars in differing opinions as if they're a part of the bigger consensus.

Literally read all the comments and replies to Palworld with tens of thousands of likes on them lambasting them and their games. Some of them have more likes than even the initial Palworld statemens from both Japanese and English accounts:

https://x.com/Palworld_JP/status/1836692607503843436
https://x.com/RAHENO_TAYA/status/1836694495641190415
https://x.com/TripleScarlet/status/1836604936970473902

@Itachi2099 I am not talking about those tweets (comments.) I am talking about the recent tweets and the Tweet that Nintendo Life is providing on this article from Palworld. Which is what I was assuming you were talking about.

@IceEarthGuard He said "most" not all. The handful of comments you read fall in the category of others automatically.

Even still, you only read a handful of comments. That's a drop in bucket compared to the Japanese player base as a whole. That's not good enough as "proof". All that proves is outliers exist in every country.

@GoshJosh He said "most of them are probably glad it's not coming over."

That wasn't referring to the comments, that was just an assumption he came up with that many would not care for it/buy it.

My comment wasn't about the player base either, it was only about the comments on the recent tweet from Palworld about the delay.. and that it has mixed responses on there.

@babybilly Well, Nintendo did. There is a patent by Nintendo on the entire Pokemon capture mechanic. And it was granted.

So you can't throw a ball on a weakened enemy and show a capture percentage.

I did watch the video and the capturing in Palworld is exactly like it is in Pokemon - down to the shaking ball and everything. So if the developers want to get NIntendo off it's back, it just changes how it looks and they can't be touched.

@SalvorHardin which to be fair, Yuzu had it coming ever since they decided to profit from the emulator. And also I think they encouraged pirating TOTK.

Which is a BIG NO-NO.

@GamingFan4Lyf which is probably the best case scenario.

Out of court settlement and change up the mechanics.

@IceEarthGuard what Itachi meant was the reaction from the Japanese side vs the Western side on the lawsuit I believe. Not the delay.

@anoyonmus exactly this, thank you 👆

@DripDropCop146 boy, did Splatfests end too early!

Pall devs, if you guys win the case, release it on switch 2 😭🥳 i will cry from laughing if that happens.
I even help you guys to advertise the game for free 🤣.

@babybilly you absolutely, 100% can patent games mechanics and there are many of them. This site often reports on when Nintendo patents them, trying to whip up speculation usually.

You can’t patent anything super broad like a “character that moves in a 3D space”, but you can patent much more specific things or means of achieving such things. Nintendo recently patented the way in which Link moves when in a vehicle in TotK. They didn’t patent characters in vehicles, but they patented the specific logic and system in which they did it.

So if a product is trying to pass as a related product and potentially damaging the related product’s reputation (such as Palworld’s poster boy, the easily confused for Electabuzz or an Electabuzz evolution/alternate form but with a machine gun) then they can whip these out to protect themselves.

They likely can’t go after the designs, which are the real issue as Palworld can claim parody, which necessitates a similarity. And proving the blatantly stolen models but on a legal level is pretty hard. Patents however, are usually a lot more clear cut.

@Itachi2099 A few replies on social media typically mean nothing. If they did, then the earth would really be flat and truly doesn't exist. Looking at the replies with the tweet that they posted here, I translated like 20 random ones and not one really seemed to bash the game or company, one was even wishing pocketpair good luck against the lawsuit. With that said, I would be curious to see the number of sales for the game on PC compared to the rest of the world also.

@anoyonmus Alright.

@ikki5 "A few replies" is disingenuous, look at thousands of replies and the amount of likes those get under this tweet:

https://x.com/Palworld_JP/status/1836692607503843436

Shame but I'm glad this is still seeing the light of day.

@Serpenterror Nintendo apologists are pretty lame and misinformed, Craftopia cannot be considered as a rip-off of zelda botw because that game has every videogame mechanic and concept in existence to the point that it barely play like Zelda. It's more like a sh@tposting game.

A similar case applies to Never Grave, as a matter of fact, that one looks even more original than Crowsworn which had the blessing from the hollow knight team.

@Itachi2099

Did you even read the replies? Now, granted, I need to use the "translate post option" but most of the criticisms were their use of being a small indie developer," while they are having Sony and Microsoft back them and how they were basically playing the victim, in others words, about how they worded this letter, not so much about Palworld and it being bad. Then many of the ones talking about them ripping them off were about designs, which this lawsuit is not even about. Then there is also a fairly large number that even supported the developers or telling people that nothing has been confirmed so not to jump to conclusions. I must have sifted through about 40 of the replies there, maybe you can read it natively to get a broader picture but from what I clicked through, It did not seem like the country was wishing them gone like you make it sound.

@GamingFan4Lyf Patent rights are there for a good reason. It's not a tool for big companies to simply bully others, it's a tool for them to protect what's rightfully theirs. Nobody is going to sue anyone over a "jump". But if you're trying to mimic a very iconic action, such as the way Pokémon are caught, then you're skating on thin ice.

As you mentioned yourself, they could've just poured a bit more creativity in it, and made things look and feel vastly different. But it was their own choice to go this route...

@8bit-Man I am not defending laziness. However, while Nintendo is in its right to defend what is theirs, there is no doubt that Nintendo sometimes takes things way further than most other companies when it comes to IP protection.

Where most other companies embrace fan projects, Nintendo will shut them down in a heartbeat - even though those fan projects are making no money. It is also incredibly dictator-ish with regards to YouTube streamers playing its games.

After seeing exactly what Nintendo was going after, it is a carbon copy of Pokemon. I understand where Nintendo is coming from. An animation change is about all that is necessary and Nintendo can't do a thing about it.

But is the animation really something that does any kind of harm to the financial success of Pokemon as a whole? No. Is anyone really going to confuse Palword with Pokemon? No.

People may prefer Palworld to Pokemon because it does things Pokemon doesn't, but that's the whole point of competition.

How many times has the "Akira bike slide" shot been used in film? Sure, no one has actually patented it, but it's kind of a similar thing. People copy stuff in art all the time!

I don't feel like it's a patent that should have been allowed in the first place.

Maybe Square Enix should patent the Fight, Magic, Ability, Item menu so no one can use it. Or how about white borders and blue background for Text blocks in games?

It all sounds nuts, but this is the kind of thing that can become an issue after this trial.

I feel like Nintendo is only doing this because Palworld thumbed its nose at Nintendo. Maybe it's deserved. Maybe it's not. I just worry what this could mean going forward.

@GamingFan4Lyf I see your concern, but I believe you're thinking a bit too much in extremes.

Point is, the catching sequence in Pokémon is very iconic, it's like a brand signature. Therefor it's understandable they don't want others to copy/steal/borrow (whatever term you prefer) a mechanic such as that, because it could certainly hurt their own brand.

It also could have easily been avoided, like you already mentioned, if the Palworld creators would have just used a different approach. Now it feels like they did it on purpose. Then it's also no surprise if the bear they poked is coming after them...

@8bit-Man Well, the good thing about games is that they can be changed with a patch.

It doesn't sound like much actually needs to change, though based on my understanding of the patent's wording. A model change here, an animation change there, a camera angle shift, and, boom, patent no longer infringed.

At the end of the day, Palworld isn't going anywhere and I sense things will get changed before court.