Pocketpair has confirmed that a few of the updates it has made to Palworld over time have been related to its ongoing legal trouble with Nintendo surrounding some patents. According to IGN, in a new statement, the company has revealed that November 2024’s patch 0.3.11, which changed how summoning Pals worked into making them static partners next to the player, was among these updates.
“Currently, we remain involved in prolonged legal proceedings regarding alleged patent infringement,” said the company in its statement. “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.”
The company went on to explain some of the changes made with the update from November, and how these changes were primarily made because of ongoing litigation from Nintendo. “As many have speculated, these changes were indeed a result of the ongoing litigation,” the studio continued. “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.”
Further in the statement, Pocketpair has also revealed that another upcoming update will be making similar changes to the game because of the same legal troubles with Nintendo. Dubbed patch 0.5.5, the update will change the gliding mechanic; rather than using Pals to glide, players will instead have to use a separate glider. Pals will still give players passive buffs to gliding, however.
“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,” explained the studio. “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.”
Since its release in January 2024, Palworld has been immensely successful for Pocketpair. The company had revealed back in February that the game had acquired more than 32 million players across all platforms. This number was a big jump from the 25 million players the game had gotten a month after its original release.
The company has also since revealed its content plans for Palworld in 2025, which would, among other things, bring in new ways to power up Pals, new content like new Pals and technologies, and an ending scenario related to the World Tree. The 2025 plans also included bringing cross-platform multiplayer to the game, which has since been accomplished through an update from back in March.
Palworld is available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. For more details, check out our review.
