If you support & purchase Nintendo products, you are my enemy.
GO BUY PALWORLD!
PLEASE VIEW MORE!

In September 2024, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developers of Palworld, accusing them of infringing on patents related to Pokémon Legends: Arceus. While many assumed this would involve copyright or character design infringement, Nintendo is instead targeting gameplay mechanics. The lawsuit hinges on patents that cover throwing objects (like Poké Balls) at creatures in an open-world environment, which Nintendo claims Palworld has copied.

The patents Nintendo is wielding are incredibly broad. For example, Patent No. 7545191 describes capturing creatures by launching a device (like a Poké Ball) at them in the game world, determining success, and registering the creature as owned by the player. It even includes mechanics like showing capture probabilities to the player​. These vague descriptions could apply to many games in the creature-collecting genre, making Nintendo's case seem more like a power grab than an effort to protect unique innovation.

But here’s where it gets even murkier: Pocketpair’s previous game, Craftopia, released before Palworld and before Nintendo finalized these patents. Craftopia already used a creature-capturing mechanic with “Monster Prisms,” which function similarly to the capture mechanics now being contested. This could provide a legal defense for Pocketpair, as they can argue that Nintendo’s patent should not apply retroactively to gameplay systems that already existed in Craftopia. This "prior art" weakens Nintendo's claim that they were the originators of these mechanics​.

Nintendo is being accused of patent trolling—filing overly broad patents and using them to suppress competitors instead of fostering innovation. By targeting Palworld, a game that brings fresh ideas to the monster-collecting genre and caters to a more mature audience, Nintendo is essentially stifling competition. Palworld expands on the creature-collecting formula by integrating mechanics that go beyond what Pokémon has offered for years, including features like guns, a survival sandbox, and resource management.

This lawsuit could discourage indie developers from exploring similar genres out of fear that Nintendo will slap them with lawsuits. The idea of "throwing objects to interact with characters" is not an innovation unique to Nintendo; it’s a common gameplay mechanic seen in countless games across different genres. Nintendo finalizing these patents after games like Craftopia and Palworld had already implemented similar mechanics feels like a targeted move to stifle competition​.

Nintendo is not protecting innovation here; they're bullying a smaller developer. Rather than focusing on making better games, they’re monopolizing common gameplay mechanics. This lawsuit is a transparent attempt to choke out an indie developer whose game is gaining traction and doing things differently. It’s a classic example of corporate greed disguised as legal protection.

If this kind of patent enforcement becomes the norm, it could drastically harm creativity and innovation in the gaming industry. Indie developers—who are often the ones pushing boundaries and introducing fresh ideas—could be scared off from experimenting with certain mechanics, fearing retaliation from bigger companies like Nintendo.

Nintendo’s actions are not only morally wrong but harmful to the broader gaming community. They set a dangerous precedent that will allow large corporations to shut down competition with legal pressure rather than improving their own games. We support Pocketpair in their fight to keep Palworld alive and push back against these abusive tactics. The gaming world deserves better.