Dev says Palworld continues to escape wrath of Nintendo lawyers despite ‘Pokémon clone’ claims

The controversy surrounding Palworld being a “Pokémon clone” was massive when the game released earlier this year, but Nintendo doesn’t seem to have done anything about it, according to Palworld‘s devs.

In an interview with GameFile, producer Takuro Mizobe spoke about the controversy regarding plagiarism accusations from fans of Nintendo’s pocket monster franchise. Earlier in the year, The Pokémon Company did release a statement that they would “investigate and take appropriate measures” against copyright infringement. But according to Mizobe, the gaming giant hasn’t done anything to them yet.

“Nothing at all. Nintendo and the Pokémon Company didn’t say anything to us,” Mizobe said. “Of course I love Pokémon and respect it. I grew up with it, in my generation.”

This interview comes just before a major new Palworld update called Sakurajima that will add new Pals and locations. The game’s developers are also currently teasing a launch on PlayStation after finding success on PC and Xbox, while also ruling out a Nintendo Switch port due to the console’s technical limitations. In addition to all of this, Palworld is still in its early access phase and isn’t expected to release as a full game until next year, according to Mizobe.

Perhaps Nintendo and The Pokémon Company don’t see Palworld as the copycat trying to steal its thunder that its detractors have made it out to be, or maybe any type of legal proceedings that the company might be taking against it is taking much longer than anybody thought. Whichever way you see it, the future of Palworld is going to be an interesting one.