Palworld's initial hype may have come and gone, but developer Pocketpair's partnership with Sony means it's far from dead just yet. However, Nintendo have now followed up on the investigation in Palworld they launched a while back, and it could have repercussions for the game's future.

Nintendo released another statement to say they've filed a "Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights" against Pocketpair. It says:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024.

This 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.

Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.

Legal battles like this tend to take a long time ot resolve themselves, and it's hard to tell just now what effect it'll have on Palworld, or the games industry as a whole. Maybe Pocketpair will get away with it, maybe they'll become bankrupted by Nintendo's legal team, or maybe they'll have to change Palworld so much it becomes a new game entirely. Whatever happens, it'll at least be interesting to see.

What do you guys think of this? Do you think Nintendo are in the right here? Sound off below!