'It was a very depressing day': Palworld community manager reveals studio's reaction to Nintendo lawsuit

Palworld Ancient Civilization Parts - Grizzbolt with a minigun — (Image credit: Pocket Pair)

Nintendo's announcement that it was suing Pocketpair, the developer of the massively successful Palworld, came as a shock last year, not the least to Pocketpair itself. The lawsuit stunned the games industry, and internally, it sent Pocketpair scrambling for answers.

Looking back on the studio's reaction to the lawsuit during a talk at GDC 2025 today, Pocketpair global community manager John Buckley said that "it didn't feel good obviously" when the announcement arrived.

Nintendo announced the lawsuit in September 2024, asking for an injunction against Palworld as well as 5 million yen (around $33,476 in the current exchange rate) for infringement on three separate patents, among them the similarity of the "Pal Sphere" to the Pokémon series' PokeBalls. Nintendo had registered the patents in a filing not long after Palworld's release, setting the stage for the lawsuit.

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Kat Bailey is an independent journalist and RPG fan whose work has appeared in more than a dozen publications worldwide. She is also the host of Axe of the Blood God, an independent podcast dedicated to RPGs in all their forms.

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