Pokémon with guns? All the latest on viral gaming hit Palworld

18 hours ago 2

P is for Pals who do stuff together.
Palworld’s crossplay update is coming soon. We don’t know exactly when, as the announcement states it’ll happen sometime late March. But expect to pal around with your friends on any platform within the next two weeks. Also, in celebration of the update, Palworld’s 25 percent off on the PlayStation store and Steam.
Image: Pocketpair Inc.
Pocketpair follows Palworld’s success with new indie publishing label
Image: Palworld
Pocketpair is getting into the games publishing business. The company has announced that it’s taking the gobs of money it made after launching Palworld, the Steam-record busting, 15-million-copies-sold-in-its-first-month, monster-catching adventure game, to establish Pocketpair Publishing.
“Pocketpair Publishing provides comprehensive support for game development through funding, development assistance, and publishing for indie game developers and small studios,” Pocketpair wrote in its press release.
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Palworld’s new island will be its ‘largest’ and ‘harshest’
Image: Pocketpair
Pocketpair isn’t letting a major lawsuit slow it down. The developer has announced that its Pokémon-like hit Palworld is getting a big update in December, which will add a new island to the game. It’s described as the “largest, harshest, and most mysterious” location in the game, measuring around six times the size of Sakurajima, an island that was added in a summer update.
Aside from the new location, there aren’t many other details about the forthcoming update. But the announcement comes amid a surge in news for the game, which became a viral sensation at the beginning of 2024. In 2025, Palworld will be getting some kind of crossover with the survival crafting game Terraria, and a mobile version is also in the works, helmed by PUBG developer Krafton.
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Here are the patents Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are suing Palworld over
Image: Palworld
Palworld developer Pocketpair has revealed the patents at the center of the infringement lawsuit Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed in Japan back in September. Pocketpair has also shared that, in addition to 5 million yen each plus late fees, they’re “seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit.
The Pokémon Company cites three Japanese patents, No. 7545191, No. 7493117, and No. 7528390. From the translation of the claims, they appear to describe Pokémon-style activities, with ‘191 focused on the act of throwing a ball at characters in a field, ‘117 tied to aiming, and ‘390 on riding characters. We’ll have to dig more deeply into the original Japanese patent language and Japanese patent law to understand how strong these patents might be in the lawsuit, however.
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PUBG developer is making Palworld mobile amid Nintendo lawsuit
Image: Pocketpair
Palworld developer Pocketpair may be facing a lawsuit from Nintendo, but that’s not stopping it from pursuing a mobile version of the game. On Wednesday, Krafton — the publisher behind PUBG: Battlegrounds — announced that it acquired the license for Palworld and will optimize it for mobile gaming, as reported earlier by Polygon.
According to a translated version of the post, Krafton says it aims to “faithfully reinterpret” Palworld’s “main fun elements to fit the mobile environment.” Krafton also created a mobile version of PUBG in 2018, and as The Verge pointed out at the time, it turned out better than expected.
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Palworld’s PS5 port is on hold indefinitely in Japan
A song of pals and pokémon.
Palworld developer has no idea why Nintendo’s suing over its Pokémon-like game
Image: Pocketpair
Nintendo and Pokémon are suing Palworld maker Pocketpair
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, which makes the game Palworld.
From Nintendo’s pres s release:
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Palworld is getting a new island... and a whole lot more.
The breakout hit is rolling out a big update on June 27th, adding new environments, pals, buildings, raids, and a new enemy oil rig. It’s also launching dedicated servers on Xbox.
Say hello to your newest pals.
PalWorld is getting an update this summer that adds some new creatures. And, as the new trailer shows they’re not only cute, but also flammable.
April Fools’ 2024: Doki Doki Palworld Club.
The developers at Pocketpair are doing that annoying game developer thing where on April Fools Day they announce a legitimately cool new game idea only for it to be a joke. And for some reason, it’s always a dating simulator.
In Palworld: ~More Than Just Pals~ choose from a roster of dateable Pals and trainers including the busty Lovander with a student ID number... errr... 69. It’s a shame this is fake; weird dating sims are always fun.
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Palworld’s creator is exploring bringing the game to more platforms.
Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe says the studio is in talks to bring the game to more platforms beyond PC and Xbox.
You probably don’t want your Pokémon fan project getting too much press coverage.
Sales numbers and visual similarities are obviously part of the equation. But according to TPC’s former Chief Legal Officer Don McGowan, one of other big factors that plays into how fanmade projects wind up on Nintendo’s radar entertainment press coverage.
Palworld isn’t slowing down, hits 19 million players across Steam and Xbox
Image: Pocketpair
Surprise viral gaming hit Palworld continues to reach new player milestones. Today, developer Pocketpair announced that the game has sold 12 million copies on Steam and reached 7 million players on Xbox. The Xbox number includes both sales and those who played via Game Pass, but the breakdown between the two isn’t clear.
According to Microsoft, though, these numbers make Palworld the biggest third-party (i.e. a game not made by an internal Microsoft studio) launch in Game Pass history. The company says it “recently” reached a “peak of nearly 3 million daily active users on Xbox, making it the most-played game on our platforms at that time.” (Which date that took place isn’t specified.)
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Here come the Palworld mobile clones.
Now that Palworld is officially a hit, it was inevitable that copycats would start flooding in. Now the developer is warning players about similar-looking and titled games that have been rolling into mobile app stores. With a quick search I was able to spot a few in the App Store, including one sold by a company called “BLUE RIDGE GUTTER CLEANING LLC,” which doesn’t sound like the most legitimate developer.
This is how Nintendo’ll get ‘em.
I think we finally found the smoking gun in the Palworld vs. Nintendo plagiarism discourse. But, instead of infringing on Pokémon, Palworld might get got for jacking from one of Nintendo’s other vaunted institutions: Animal Crossing.
Apparently, one of the pieces of furniture you can make for your Pal gulag is Animal Crossing’s infamous frog chair. Though I doubt Nintendo owns the intellectual property rights to a specific depiction of chair, it would be pretty funny if this, of all things, is what takes Palworld down.
The Pokémon Company says it will ‘investigate’ Palworld
Image: Pocketpair
Yes, The Pokémon Company is aware of Palworld.
And now, after one modder already received a takedown notice, we have The Pokémon Company’s first official response:
Inquiries Regarding Other Companies’ Games
We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024. We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game. We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon. We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future.
The Pokémon Company
Palworld is getting raid bosses, PvP, and crossplay support in the future
Image: Pocketpair
Palworld, a new multiplayer monster-collecting survival game, has sold more than 7 million copies in just five days, and now the developers behind it are sharing a roadmap of what’s to come. Dubbed “Pokémon with guns” by many, Palworld is set to get player-vs-player (PvP) fights, raid bosses, a PvP arena mode, and Steam / Xbox crossplay support.
Developer Pocketpair revealed the planned future updates in a post on X (formerly Twitter) today with no time frame for when they will arrive. Palworld is also getting “various Xbox feature improvements,” alongside server transfers and migrations, improvements to the game’s building system, and new islands, pals, bosses, and technologies.
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But for Palworld, it was Tuesday.
Palworld’s coming for the kneecaps of all of Steam’s most popular games. Within days of its early access launch it’s sold 6 million copies, rocketed to the top of Steam concurrent player lists, and now it can add another milestone, amassing 1.864 million players to beat Counter-Strike’s all time peak player count.
Funnily enough, Palworld’s peak player count only barely edged out Counter-Strike’s all time high by roughly 50,000 players. Impressive numbers aside, Palworld’s got a tough row to hoe if it hopes to ever beat reigning champion PUBG’s all-time player count of 3 million.
Nintendo goes after the Palworld Pokémon modder
Image: ToastedShoes
Palworld is a hit, and it’s easy to see why
Image: Pocketpair
It seems like everyone on Earth is either talking about or playing Palworld. Indeed, in the three days since its early access launch on Steam on January 19th (and simultaneous release on Game Pass), the game has sold over 5 million copies. While that’s not quite Tears of the Kingdom numbers, to have a game from a relatively unknown developer do that kind of work in that short of time? Okay, Palworld, you have our attention. Let’s see exactly what it is you have to say.
Palworld’s announcement trailer released in 2021. It started generally enough, with a bright, colorful world populated with cute monsters that bear an almost uncomfortable resemblance to another game featuring cute, catchable creatures. But then come the AK-47s. Midway through the game’s trailer, the tone shifts from “catch these cute monsters that will help you build your home” to “shoot these cute monsters and use them as slave labor.” One of the most memorable moments from that first trailer was the image of a bunch of pals (the monsters are called pals) that look startlingly like Sprigatito, mournfully manufacturing assault rifles on an assembly line.
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Over five million copies of Palworld have been sold since Friday.
Lots of people have been catching Pals and hatching eggs, according to the game’s developer, Pocketpair. Palworld is also currently the most-played game on Steam, hitting a peak of roughly 1.5 million players.
The game, described by Kotaku as “if someone tossed Minecraft, Fortnite, Pokémon, and some AR-15s into a giant blender,” is a breakout hit despite seemingly coming out of nowhere.
Pocketpair/X