Nintendo Sues Palworld Studio for Its Pokemon-Like Shooter Game

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have filed a lawsuit in Tokyo District Court against Japanese video game studio Pocketpair, alleging that its parody shooter game Palworld is violating intellectual property laws.

Palworld was released in January. At the time, The Pokemon Company said it was investigating the game, which uses characters and settings that are similar to those in the Pokemon universe, albeit with a more violent and irreverent tone.

After its debut, Palworld became a huge hit on the PC platform Steam and on Xbox, selling about 25 million copies in its first month, according to Statista. Fans of the game quickly made mods for Palworld that substituted actual Pokemon for the game’s characters.

The Pokemon Company said in January, “We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokemon 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 Pokemon.”

Nintendo said Thursday that the new lawsuit “seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the defendant, infringes multiple patent rights.”

In response, Pocketpair said it hasn’t received official notice of the suit and isn’t yet aware of what patents are involved. The company said in its statement: “It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company didn’t respond to requests for further comment on the suit.