When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, was released, it quickly drew comparisons to Pokemon, often being dubbed "Pokemon with guns." Despite the comparisons not being Pocketpair's preferred association, according to communications director John 'Bucky' Buckley, the allure of collecting cute monsters has led many to wonder if Palworld might find its way to the Nintendo Switch, the traditional home of Pokemon.
Unfortunately, Buckley has confirmed that a Switch release is unlikely due to technical constraints. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game," he stated. This was shared during our conversation at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, following his talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.'
When asked about the possibility of a release on the rumored Nintendo Switch 2, Buckley expressed interest but highlighted that the feasibility is uncertain due to lack of information on the new console's specifications. "We haven't seen those specs yet," he noted. "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."
Pocketpair is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Nintendo over alleged patent infringement related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics. This has led to speculation that the lawsuit might be the real reason behind Palworld's absence from the Switch. However, Buckley clarified during his GDC talk that the lawsuit isn't the primary barrier to releasing on Nintendo's platforms. He briefly addressed the lawsuit, noting it came as a surprise to the team despite their efforts to ensure compliance through legal checks before the game's launch. "Pretty much everyone at Pocketpair is a huge fan [of Pokemon]," Buckley mentioned, "so it was a very depressing day, everyone heads down and walking in the rain."
The overarching question remains whether Nintendo would permit a game it has legally challenged to appear on its next-generation console. We'll be sharing our full interview with Buckley from GDC later this week, so stay tuned for more updates on Palworld. In the meantime, it's an excellent opportunity to dive back into the game, especially with the recent addition of cross-platform play in its latest update.
