How a Nintendo lawsuit changed Palworld… and what might come next

Small changes with potentially big ramifications.

Palworld. Image: Pocketpair, captured from an official trailer for the game.

Palworld, the survival creature-catching game that has more than 32 million players across PC and console platforms, changed last week, as the result of a patent lawsuit in Japan filed late last year by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

It’s the second time the hit game has been changed due to the lawsuit, Palworld’s Japanese development studio Pocketpair said in a statement issued alongside the newest patch.

The first changes, made in December 2024, involved summoning Pals. Pocketpair’s update last week, via patch 0.5.5, changes how players glide—they no longer hang onto Pals, swapping the creatures out for a generic glider.

How did things get this far? And what might happen next?

I’ve reviewed the changes in Palworld—some of them surprisingly specific—and I’ve spoken to three intellectual property lawyers (with experience in Japan, the U.S., and Europe). Along with a review of reporting regarding Pocketpair’s defenses in Japan, I’ve been able to get a better understanding of how the upstart studio is dealing with Nintendo’s lawsuit and what this situation means beyond Palworld.

As two experts told me, if Nintendo and The Pokémon Company succeed, it could have a big impact on the wider video game industry.