Summary

  • Pocketpair has provided an update on its legal battle with The Pokemon Company.
  • The Palworld studio has confirmed the removal of Pal Spheres was brought about by the Pokemon lawsuit.
  • It also revealed gliding with Pals will also be removed from the game in the next update, again, thanks to its legal battle with Pokemon.

Pocketpair has provided an update on its ongoing lawsuit with The Pokemon Company. In it, the studio has confirmed last year's removal of Pal Spheres was brought about by the legal issues, and that a second mechanic will be leaving the game, seemingly in an attempt to appease Pokemon's creators.

Palworld earned the moniker "Pokemon with guns" during the build to its launch. Even though the goals and gameplay of the survival game are very different from standard Pokemon fare, Pocketpair's hit wound up making a big enough splash that shortly after its successful launch, The Pokemon Company came after it.

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Pocketpair tried to explain some of the issues Pokemon's creators have with Palworld last year, and shortly after that explanation, an update removed Pal Spheres from the game. Pal Spheres work in a very similar way to Poke Balls with players using them to summon the game's Pals. However, it wasn't until another unfortunate update this week that Pocketpair confirmed Pokemon is to blame for the disappearance of Pal Spheres.

Pokemon Really Is To Blame For The Removal Of Pal Spheres

And Now It's Taking Pal Gliding Away Too

"On November 30th, 2024, we released Patch v0.3.11 for Palworld. This patch removed the ability to summon Pals by throwing Pal Spheres," Palworld's dev team wrote in an update shared on social media. "As many have speculated, these changes were indeed a result of the ongoing litigation."

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Unfortunately, it gets worse for Palworld players. Pocketpair has chosen now to confirm suspicions about the removal of Pal Spheres because it has more bad news to share with Palworld's player base. "Furthermore, we regret to inform our players that with the implementation of Patch v0.5.5, we must make yet another compromise. From this patch onward, gliding will be performed using a glider rather than with Pals."

Until now, you have been able to glide with select Pals in Palworld. Once the v0.5.5 update is implemented, that feature will be removed. You will still receive a passive gliding buff from those Pals, but you'll have to use a boring old glider if you want to soar from place to place in the Palpagos Islands from now on.

Gliding getting axed is a little more surprising than Pal Spheres falling foul of Pokemon's legal team. The Pokemon Company is presumably upset since you can glide using Koraidon and Miraidon in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. Since you can glide in other games, and you can still glide using a bog standard glider in Palworld, the idea Palworld is allegedly infringing on, and seemingly something The Pokemon Company owns the patent to, is gliding using a creature in a video game.

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Palworld

Open-World Shooter Survival Systems 11 7.8/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 71/100 Critics Rec: 58% Released January 19, 2024 ESRB T For Teen Due To Violence Developer(s) Pocket Pair, Inc. Publisher(s) Pocket Pair, Inc. Engine Unreal Engine 5
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