Palworld’s long-awaited PlayStation 5 release shadow-dropped yesterday, September 24 after an announcement during Sony’s State of Play broadcast, but while gamers in 68 countries worldwide were downloading the survival and crafting game dubbed 'Pokémon with guns' on PlayStation, Japanese gamers were blocked from doing so.
The official Japanese Palworld account tweeted that the game’s PS5 release in Japan “has not yet been decided” but failed to explain why. "We apologize to everyone in Japan who was looking forward to it, but all of our staff will do our best to deliver it to PS5 users as soon as possible, so we hope you will wait for a little longer," read the statement. "We look forward to your continued support of Palworld."
It seems likely the delay has to do with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s high-profile patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair, which was filed in the Tokyo District Court last week. Pocketpair issued a statement in response claiming it had no idea which patents it’s accused of infringing, but experts have pointed to a “killer patent” that revolves around the mechanic of catching Pokémon itself.
After Palworld’s huge launch earlier this year on PC and Xbox, comparisons were made between Palworld’s Pals and Pokémon, with some accusing Pocketpair of "ripping off" Pokémon designs. But rather than file a copyright infringement lawsuit, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have gone down the patent route.
It is worth noting that Palworld does include a mechanic that involves throwing a ball-like object (called a Pal Sphere) at monsters out in a field to capture them, similar to the mechanic seen in 2022 Nintendo Switch exclusive Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and this may prove the key to the lawsuit.
For now, Palworld’s PS5 Japan release is up in the air. But the game remains playable on all the platforms it originally launched in, including PC via Steam and Xbox. It’s also still in Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription program.
Pocketpair, meanwhile, continues to update Palworld amid the lawsuit. It’s just released patch 0.3.8, which makes a number of bug fixes.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
