Palworld has been released on PS5 in Japan, despite the fact that a lawsuit from Nintendo is looming in the background for developer and publisher Pocketpair.
The creature-collecting survival game was surprise-launched on PS5 last week as part of Sony’s State of Play presentation, but at the time, Pocketpair said the Japanese release date for the game on Sony’s console had “not yet been decided”.
Now, however, a new message on the official Japanese Palworld X (formerly Twitter) account confirms that Pocketpair’s game is available to buy on PS5 in Japan right now. I guess that means the studio managed to decide on a release date.
While Pocketpair has never outright stated the reason for the delayed Japanese PS5 release of Palworld, it’s likely due to a lawsuit filed by Nintendo in September.
The lawsuit alleges “patent infringement” on the part of Pocketpair, although Nintendo’s official announcement stops shy of explaining exactly which patent the gaming giant is hoping to catch Pocketpair out on.
Given Palworld‘s similarity to Pokemon, not just in terms of creature designs but in several other areas as well, I imagine there’s a number of potential angles of attack Nintendo could be pursuing on this, but we’ll have to wait and see what’s revealed in future.
Of course, lawsuit or no lawsuit, Palworld remains a hugely popular game; so much so, in fact, that PUBG studio Krafton announced earlier this week that it’s working on a mobile version of the game.
If you’re not across Palworld, it’s a survival game with Pokemon-esque creatures called Pals to collect, battle, and (potentially) enslave to help you build your very own doom fortress.
Often memed as “Pokemon with guns”, Palworld sees you teaming up with Pals (or exploiting their labor) to build a base, battle other Pals, and potentially take on challenging raids, either alongside other players or by yourself.
Palworld is available right now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox. You can take a look at our initial thoughts on the game’s Early Access release right here via our preview.
