A Pocketpair developer has issued a response after some Pokémon followers questioned the timing of the corporate’s Palworld: Palfarm announcement, which got here simply a week after Nintendo revealed Pokémon Pokopia.
Japanese firm Pocketpair introduced cozy farming sim spinoff Palworld: Palfarm for PC simply a week after Nintendo introduced fellow cozy farming sim spinoff Pokémon Pokopia for Change 2 throughout its Nintendo Direct showcase.
Based on Pocketpair, in Palworld: Palfarm you’re employed alongside Friends to show fields into full-functioning farms solo or in on-line multiplayer. “Delegate duties to plant seeds, are inclined to rising crops, and spherical up the harvest,” Pocketpair stated. “Befriend the locals and unearth sudden story arcs. Beware, the coziness can flip chaotic — be careful for wild Friends that pilfer recent produce.”
Pokémon Pokopia, in the meantime, due out on Nintendo Change 2 in 2026, is described as a life simulation sport “the place gamers can create their very own Pokémon paradise.” The sport options Ditto as its protagonist, who has reworked to appear to be a human. “As Ditto, gamers can discover and be taught strikes from the Pokémon they befriend — corresponding to Bulbasaur’s Leafage to develop greenery, or Squirtle’s Water Gun to revive dried-up crops — increasing their capabilities and serving to them create an inviting surroundings to draw a selection of Pokémon,” Nintendo defined.
“Gamers can gather supplies, construct furnishings, develop greens, and create properties for Pokémon, permitting them to expertise a cozy, gradual life with Pokémon — one which they construct themselves from the bottom up. Over time, gamers can develop a city of their very own and invite different gamers or Pokémon to go to. Pokémon Pokopia additionally options a day-night cycle linked to real-world time, altering climate, and in-game places with their very own distinctive traits.”
Some have been fast to query the timing of Palworld: Palfarm’s announcement, regardless of the very fact video games take years to make and divulges are deliberate lengthy in advance. “The timing of this simply after the Pokémon Pokopia announcement. They obtained balls, I respect that,” said redditor Sweaty_Molasses_3899. “They most likely felt they wanted to announce this sooner than they may have needed merely to get forward of accusations of ‘copying’ their thought for a farm-sim sport after Pokopia obtained introduced,” suggested KJShen. “I really feel like this announcement is to spite Nintendo for his or her current bs,” added Brohtworst. “Cannot be a coincidence they’d develop one thing so much like Pokopia.” “It is so uninspired to make a sport that is extra about one upping a firm than really making one thing good,” declared stcrIight.
Now, Pocketpair communications director and publishing supervisor John “Bucky” Buckley, who has turn out to be the face of the corporate for western followers, has issued a response on social media, saying “the tinfoil hats are out in power.”
“A sure % of silliness and grumpy folks have been anticipated when asserting Palfarm, and a smaller % of “REEEE POCKETPAIR” was anticipated too…” Bucky stated.
“However I am stunned how many individuals assume we’re wizard-level builders in a position to make a sport in one week.
“The tinfoil hats are out in power😇”
Then: “There may be a sure stage of poetic irony… the identical individuals who “REEE POCKETPAIR” are the identical folks pondering we made a whole sport in one week.
“Schrödinger’s Pocketpair I assume. We’re each a ‘slop firm’ and succesful of making whole video games in one week it appears🤷♂️”
That is of course a reference to the copying accusations Palworld itself suffered following its explosive launch early in 2024. Fans dubbed the sport ‘Pokémon with weapons’ on account of similarities between some of the mechanics. Nintendo and The Pokémon Firm finally sued Pocketpair in a patent case that’s nonetheless ongoing.
Final week, Pocketpair stated it was heads down getting Palworld prepared to go away early entry and formally launch its 1.0 replace sooner or later in 2026. Palworld will launch correct subsequent yr alongside what seems like a large replace, which Pocketpair is now specializing in.
All of the whereas, Nintendo has been busy acquiring patents — some of which IP legal professionals stated ought to by no means have been granted — because it develops its case in opposition to Pocketpair, which has vowed to defend itself in courtroom.
The case includes three patents granted by the Japan Patent Workplace: two associated to monster seize and launch, and one associated to using characters. All three patents have been filed in 2024, after Palworld got here out. Nonetheless, they’re really derived from earlier Nintendo patents relationship from 2021. In different phrases, plainly as soon as Palworld got here on the scene, Nintendo filed divisional patents that have been geared to combat particularly in opposition to Palworld’s alleged infringement of the unique patents.
Nintendo’s legal professionals attempting to determine if this breaches a future patent they’re engaged on pic.twitter.com/gRHF6UZj9x
— Adam Vjestica (@ItsMrProducts) September 23, 2025
Since then, Pocketpair has made changes to Palworld’s disputed mechanics. The November 2024 patch eliminated the flexibility to summon Friends by throwing Pokéball-like Pal Spheres (now Friends simply materialize subsequent to you when summoned). In Might this yr, one other Palworld replace modified how one can glide in the sport — as a substitute of instantly grabbing onto Glider Friends, now you simply merely use Pal-buffed Glider tools. Then, in July, Nintendo and The Pokémon Firm reworded one of the patents in the case.
At GDC in March, IGN sat down for an prolonged dialog with Bucky following his discuss on the convention, ‘Group Administration Summit: A Palworld Curler Coaster: Surviving the Drop.’ Throughout that discuss, Buckley went into candid element about a quantity of Palworld’s struggles, particularly the accusations of it utilizing generative AI (which Pocketpair has since debunked fairly soundly) and stealing Pokemon’s fashions for its personal Friends. He even commented on Nintendo’s patent infringement lawsuit in opposition to the studio, saying it “got here as a shock” and was “one thing that nobody even thought of.”
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.