Krafton Partners With Pocketpair to Develop Mobile Version of Palworld Amid Nintendo Lawsuit

Palworld, the action-adventure survival title that became a phenomenon when it launched in early access on Steam and Xbox in January, is coming to mobile platforms. Krafton has signed an agreement with Palworld developer Pocketpair to make a mobile version of the game, the company announced Wednesday. The development comes after Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair last month over alleged instances of patent infringement in Palworld.

Palworld on Mobile

PUBG: Battlegrounds maker Krafton announced it had entered a partnership with Pocketpair to expand the Palworld intellectual property to mobile platforms. As part of the agreement, Krafton's PUBG Studios will develop a mobile version of the controversial game.

“It plans to faithfully reinterpret and implement the main fun elements of the original for the mobile environment,” Krafton said in its announcement Wednesday (translated from Korean).

The company has not revealed a launch timeline for the mobile version of Palworld, but one can expect the game to launch on iOS, Android and iPadOS platforms.

Palworld initially launched in early access on PC and Xbox consoles on January 19 and became a smash-hit title on both platforms, breaking player count records on Steam. In a little over a month since its launch, the game had sold 15 million copies on Steam and attracted 10 million players on Xbox. Palworld was released on PS5 on September 25.

Nintendo Lawsuit

The survival title, which features Pokémon-style creatures, or Pals, that can be captured and tamed for combat, traversal, and base building in the game's open world, became one of the most played games on Steam despite a flurry of plagiarism claims that accused the game of copying Pokémon designs. The comparisons led to Palworld being called “Pokémon with guns.”

Last month, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, seeking compensation for damages and an injunction on the game. The Palworld maker has acknowledged the lawsuit but has said it is unaware of specific instances of alleged copyright infringement. "It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit," the Japanese company said.