When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, launched, it quickly drew comparisons to the iconic Pokemon series, often dubbed "Pokemon with guns." While Pocketpair's communications director, John 'Bucky' Buckley, isn't thrilled about this comparison, the concept of gathering a team of adorable monsters has sparked curiosity among fans about the possibility of Palworld appearing on the Nintendo Switch, the preferred platform for Pokemon games.
However, Buckley has confirmed that a Nintendo 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. This statement came during a conversation at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, following Buckley's presentation titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.'
When asked about the prospects of a release on the rumored Nintendo Switch 2, Buckley expressed interest but noted that Pocketpair has not yet had access to the specifications of the new console. "We haven't seen those specs yet," he 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. 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 from Nintendo, accused of patent infringement related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics. This legal battle has led some to speculate that it might be the true reason behind Palworld's absence from the Nintendo Switch. However, Buckley clarified during his GDC talk that the lawsuit was unexpected, and the team had taken extensive legal precautions before the game's release. He shared the team's disappointment, saying, "Pretty much everyone at Pocketpair is a huge fan [of Pokemon], so it was a very depressing day, everyone heads down and walking in the rain."
The ongoing lawsuit raises questions about whether Nintendo would permit a game it has contested to be released on its next-generation console. As we await further developments, IGN will soon publish the full interview with Buckley from GDC. In the meantime, fans of Palworld may want to dive back into the game, especially with the recent update introducing cross-platform play.
