Palworld Confirms Some Features are Being Removed or Changed Due to Pokemon Litigation

Last year, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a joint lawsuit against Pocketpair, the owner and developer of Palworld. The lawsuit accused the company of infringing on multiple patents, including a patent regarding the way Pokemon are sent into battle. Last year, Pocketpair made a change to the way players summon Pals in Palworld, and many speculated that this was a direct result of the ongoing litigation. In a post on X/Twitter this morning, Pocketpair confirmed that’s why the change was made to Pal Spheres, though it continues “to dispute these claims and assert the invalidity of the patents in question.”

The post goes on to say that the changes being made to the game are “disappointing” to the developers, and might be to the fans as well. However, the company notes “these changes are necessary in order to prevent further disruptions to the development of Palworld.” It’s important to note that the lawsuit has nothing to do with the designs of the Pals themselves, and only relates to certain elements of the game. On top of the Pal Sphere changes, Pocketpair has announced another gameplay tweak that will be made as a result of the litigation.

“Furthermore, we regret to inform our players that with the implementation of Patch v0.5.5, we must make yet another compromise. From this patch onward, gliding will be performed using a glider rather than with Pals. Pals in the player’s team will still provide passive buffs to gliding, but players will now need to have a glider in their inventory in order to glide,” the post reads.

From everything that has played out since the lawsuit was announced, it looks like Pocketpair is trying to settle the lawsuit amicably, and put this situation in the past. Despite the litigation, Pocketpair has maintained a desire to work with Nintendo. Back in January, the company released Overdungeon on Switch, marking the first Pocketpair game released on a Nintendo platform. Two months later, Pocketpair communications director John “Bucky” Buckley discussed the possibility of a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Palworld with IGN. Buckley noted that a version on the current hardware would be too difficult, and that Pocketpair is interested to see if it could be pulled off on Switch 2.

RELATED: Palworld Developer Says Pokemon Lawsuit Led to a “Very Depressing Day”

It remains to be seen whether there will be additional changes made to Palworld in the coming months, or if the current changes will go far enough to satisfy Nintendo and The Pokemon Company. Neither of the announced changes seems to drastically alter the overall gameplay experience of Palworld, but they should help to build some distance between the two properties. Hopefully the companies can come to some kind of an agreement, so that fans can continue to enjoy Palworld without having to worry about the game’s future.

How do you feel about these changes that have been made to Palworld? Do you think the lawsuit can be amicably settled? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!