Palworld Mobile Launch Amidst Gaming Legal Battles

Palworld's Bold Move into Mobile Gaming

Despite facing a patent infringement lawsuit in Japan from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, indie developer Pocketpair is pushing ahead with capitalizing on the runaway success of its creature-collecting survival game Palworld. After surprise-launching the game on PlayStation 5 in September (everywhere but Japan), Pocketpair has entered into an agreement with Korean publisher Krafton to develop a mobile version.

Partnership with Krafton

Krafton announced the deal on Wednesday, stating that the new mobile version would be developed by PUBG Studios, the studio behind the battle royale smash PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. While Krafton hasn’t specified whether Palworld on mobile will be a straightforward port of the PC and console game or something unique, their statement indicated they “plan to faithfully reinterpret and implement the original’s main fun elements to fit the mobile environment.”

Mobile Gaming Landscape

Krafton’s PUBG Mobile has closely matched the original PUBG, introducing a free-to-play model retrofitted from the PC and console game. This seems a likely outcome for the mobile version of Palworld, which is currently a paid early access game on console and PC. Notably, Palworld's biggest audience is in China, where the free-to-play mobile gaming market dominates.

Ongoing Legal Challenges

Nintendo has yet to expand its legal challenges against Palworld outside of the Japanese market. Their case hinges on a series of patent applications concerning gameplay mechanics in Pokémon games.