When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, was launched, it quickly drew comparisons to Pokemon, earning the nickname "Pokemon with guns." Despite the team at Pocketpair not favoring this comparison, as noted by communications director John 'Bucky' Buckley, the allure of collecting adorable creatures has sparked interest among fans about the possibility of Palworld coming to the Nintendo Switch.
Unfortunately, Buckley has confirmed that a Switch release is unlikely due to technical limitations. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game," he explained. At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, following his talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop,' Buckley discussed the potential of a Nintendo Switch 2 release. He expressed interest but noted that without access to the new console's specifications, it's too early to determine if a port is feasible. "We haven't seen those specs yet," Buckley stated. "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."
He further added that if the Nintendo Switch 2 proves powerful enough, it would certainly be worth considering. "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 facing a lawsuit from Nintendo over alleged patent infringement related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics. This has led to speculation that the lawsuit might be the real barrier to a Switch release. However, Buckley clarified during his GDC talk that the lawsuit was unexpected and disheartening for the team, despite thorough legal checks before the game's release. "Pretty much everyone at Pocketpair is a huge fan [of Pokemon]," Buckley shared, "so it was a very depressing day, everyone heads down and walking in the rain."
The lingering question remains: would Nintendo even permit a game it's legally challenged on its next-generation console? As we await the full interview with Buckley at GDC later this week, now might be a great time to revisit Palworld, especially with the recent addition of cross-platform play in its latest update.
