Despite being faced with a patent infringement lawsuit in Japan from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, the indie developer Pocketpair is undeterred and continues to capitalize on the astonishing success of their creature-collecting survival game Palworld. After a surprise launch on PlayStation 5 in September (except in Japan), Pocketpair has entered into an agreement with the Korean publisher Krafton to develop a mobile version.
Krafton announced this deal on Wednesday, and stated that the new mobile version would be developed by PUBG Studios, the studio behind the smash hit battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Krafton didn’t specify whether the mobile version of Palworld would be a straightforward port of the PC and console game or something distinct, but their statement said (via machine translation) that they “intend to faithfully reinterpret and implement the original’s main fun elements to suit the mobile environment.”
Krafton’s PUBG Mobile is quite similar to the original PUBG, although it was the pioneer in adopting the free-to-play business model that has now been adapted to the PC and console game. It seems likely that the same will happen with the mobile version of Palworld (which is a paid early access game on console and PC). Palworld has its largest audience in China, where free-to-play mobile gaming holds supreme dominance.
Nintendo has yet to expand its legal challenge to Palworld beyond the Japanese market. Their case hinges on a series of patent applications related to gameplay mechanics in Pokémon games.