When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, launched, it drew significant comparisons to Pokemon, earning the nickname "Pokemon with guns." While Pocketpair's communications director, John 'Bucky' Buckley, isn't fond of this comparison, the allure of collecting adorable monsters has led many to wonder if Palworld might ever make its way to the Nintendo Switch, the traditional home of Pokemon games.
Unfortunately, Buckley has confirmed that a Switch release is not on the horizon, primarily due to technical constraints. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game," he stated. I had the opportunity to speak with Buckley at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week, following his talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.' During our discussion, I also inquired about the possibility of a release on the rumored Nintendo Switch 2. Buckley expressed interest but noted that Pocketpair hasn't had the chance to evaluate the feasibility yet due to unavailable specs.
"We haven't seen those specs yet," Buckley explained. "Like everyone else, we're waiting. I'm walking around GDC hoping someone will tell me them, but everyone I've spoken to says they haven't even seen them. If it's beefy enough, it's 100% worth considering. We did a lot of optimization for Steam Deck, which we were really happy with. Still work to do, but we're really happy with how it turned out. So we would like to get it on more handhelds if possible."
Amidst these technical considerations, Pocketpair is also navigating a lawsuit from Nintendo over alleged patent infringement related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics. This has led some to speculate that legal issues might be the true barrier to a Switch release. However, Buckley clarified during his GDC talk that the lawsuit was not the primary reason preventing a release on Nintendo's platforms. He mentioned that the lawsuit came as a surprise to the team, despite their efforts to conduct thorough legal checks before the game's launch. "Pretty much everyone at Pocketpair is a huge fan [of Pokemon]," Buckley remarked, reflecting on the team's disappointment upon receiving the lawsuit news.
The ongoing legal battle raises questions about whether Nintendo would permit a game it has taken issue with on its next-generation console. We'll be posting our full interview with Buckley later this week, so stay tuned for more insights on Palworld. In the meantime, now is a great opportunity to dive back into Palworld, especially with the recent update introducing cross-platform play.
