Palworld is taking a beating from The Pokemon Company and Nintendo. The devs over at Pocket Pair have had to patch out features they were sued for recently, like creatures gliding you over to places. It’s a sad sight to see, and might even force other companies to limit ideas for their games.
Some fans might not see it this way, but Palworld losing the lawsuit to Pokemon and Nintendo is bad. What makes this worse is that the lawsuit isn’t over yet, so more of these restrictions could come and make the game less fun. It makes us wonder if one company can own an idea and never have that improved upon by other creatives.
This isn’t the first time the devs at Pocket Pair have had to patch out features. Aside from removing the Arceus-style creature gliding, they also had to remove the sphere-like items used for summoning and catching creatures. Granted, that is associated with Pokemon, but it’s still sad seeing a tribute or parody to the series removed like that.
We hope more features aren’t removed, but the folks at Pokemon and Nintendo might force them to do so. It seems that neither company owns the rights to monster catching, hence, all the indie RPGs that still use the concept. Still, we could end up seeing other RPGs abandon that idea because The Pokemon Company and Nintendo might sue them for it.
All these restrictions being put on Palworld remind us of the time when Warner Bros. decided to own the Nemesis system from Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Since Warner Bros. owns this mechanic, no one else can use or innovate on it for the next few years, which is incredibly disappointing. Fans would somewhat understand this move if the company w consistently releasing games with this mechanic, but that hasn’t been the case, as they literally canceled their Wonder Woman video game.
Ideas in art are meant to be shared so that others can put their own twist on them for innovation and creativity. Had Konami or Nintendo trademarked open-ended 2D side-scrollers, we wouldn’t be getting great Metrodivania games like Hollow Knight. Sure, some of these ideas get reused in a lazy manner, hence the term “clone games,” but they still have a purpose.
Palworld should be allowed to exist as it currently is, and the fact that this game no longer has the features it launched with is unacceptable. Those memes about shooting Pokemon were fun when they first started, so it’s a real shame that The Pokemon Company and Nintendo decided to rain on everyone’s parade.