Petition Asks Nintendo to Drop Palworld Lawsuit

Summary

Nintendo lawsuit forces Palworld to make unfortunate changes, upsetting fans.
A petition with over 200 signatures is asking Nintendo to drop its lawsuit.
Nintendo has not responded to the petition at the time of this writing.

Fans have made a petition hoping to convince Nintendo to drop its lawsuit against Palworld. Palworld was released in early access in January 2024 and was an instant success. Fans flocked to the open world survival game and its unique "Pokemon with guns" style of gameplay, but Palworld's similarities to Nintendo's big franchise has caused issues since the start.

There are some Palworld Pals that look near-identical to existing Pokemon, which caused Pocketpair's game to be heavily criticized by some fans. Months after its early access launch, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit, claiming Palworld infringed on their patents. Nintendo then filed fresh patents in the US surrounding certain Pokemon mechanics that also pop up in Palworld. The way that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have gone about this has not sat well with fans, as it has forced Pocketpair to make unfortunate changes to Palworld's design. For example, Palworld no longer allows players to summon Pals by throwing Pal Spheres, but instead simply teleports them to the player's location. More recently, Palworld changed gliding so that players can no longer glide with their Pals, but instead have to use a glider.

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By Aaron McKinley

The unfortunate Palworld changes as a result of the lawsuit have upset fans and inspired them to create a petition asking NIntendo to stop. The Change.org petition, started by Jamesen DeMann, has 208 signatures at the time of this writing. It accuses Nintendo of trying to "monopolize game mechanics," which "stifles the creativity that the gaming community thrives on." Nintendo has not responded to the petition and is unlikely to do so, even if it gets a surge of new signatures.

Petition Wants Nintendo to 'Drop Legal Actions' Against Palworld's Developers

Unless the courts rule in favor of Palworld, it's likely that more changes are on the way between now and its 1.0 launch, whenever that may be. But that doesn't mean all updates for the game will be bad news. Controversial changes may be made, but future Palworld updates will add significant new content to the game as well, including new areas to explore and Pals to catch. Palworld has been an incredible commercial success, and it should still have a bright future, even if it has to work around the Nintendo lawsuit.

This is far from the first time that video game mechanic patents have caused a stir in the industry. The popular Nemesis system from the Middle-earth games was patented by Warner Bros. Game in a particularly controversial move, especially in the wake of developer Monolith Productions being shut down and its Wonder Woman game canceled.

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