Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld isn't just bad for the industry, it's bad for Nintendo

GamesSurvival & CraftingPalworldNintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld isn’t just bad for the industry, it’s bad for NintendoWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Nintendo)

Ganondorf yelling with the gem in his forehead glowing

I love my Nintendo Switch⁠—I’m a PC gamer first and foremost, but the hybrid console created this entirely new niche in my play habits and rekindled an appreciation for Nintendo games I hadn’t really felt since the GameCube/Game Boy Advance era. Sometimes though, I look at wee Paper Mario running across the screen, this sweet totem of my childhood, and think: “Damn, the company that made thisruined a guy’s life over 3DS piracy.”

Nintendocasting itself as the games industry’s own legal Terminatordoesn’t seem to have impacted its fortunes—it’s enjoying one of the greatest hardware successes in its long history with the Switch—but these aggressive legal tactics may hurt the company in time, damaging its reputation in the name of questionable, difficult to quantify ends. Worse, it’s hurting videogames in general.

Bad for the Industry

I’m no fan of Palworld’s attempt at a survival game with Poké characteristics, but I find it hard to see Nintendo’s patent lawsuit as being anything but bad for competition and creativity in the industry. Warner Brosfamously trademarked the nemesis system from its Mordor gamesand then sat on it, the system’s promised use in an upcoming Wonder Woman game having yet to materialize. God forbid an independent developer attempt something similar.

In a medium built on imitation and iteration⁠—FPSes were once called “Doom clones”—a high-profile legal effort to punish that behavior strikes me as short-sighted, and bad for gamers. What if Nintendo had patented Wario Land’s level escape mechanic, and brought it to bear againstPizza Tower, which refined and expanded the concept? Palworld is clearly derivative, maybe even to the point of being tasteless, but in making an example of it, Nintendo’s actions may scare off other, worthier games in the future.

We recently saw a helpful example of the knock-on effect videogame publishers' litigiousness can have on our gaming lives: Modder iArtoriasUAremoved their popular PlayStation Network log in-removing hackfrom the God of War Ragnarök Nexus, entirely inanticipationof legal action from Sony. Similarly, artists and fan game makers have learned to dread achieving the amount of attention and publicity that could draw Nintendo’s eye.

Bad for Nintendo

(Image credit: Pocketpair)

Palworld - a player aims a Pal Sphere at an alpha Mamorest

Burnishing the reputation of ‘Nintendo, the life-ruining legal entity’ inherently comes at the cost of ‘Nintendo, the lovable toymaker.’

An analysis of Nintendo’s history of IP lawsuitsshows a pattern of absurd, overwhelming force brought to bear against smaller actors: The ugly case ofGary Bowser—sent to prison and now working off a $14.5 million debt while experiencing chronic pain from the effects of elephantiasis, all over the sale of piracy-enabling 3DS hardware—ormass copyright-striking YouTubersover soundtrack music. But even in the case of direct piracy like Bowser engaged in, has the company’s bottom line really benefited from going after marginal players with such aggression? How much of Nintendo’s estimated $65 billion market cap can seriously be attributed to its legendary litigiousness?

Palworld is even less of a direct threat to Nintendo’s interests than pirates, a surprisingly successful imitator that the company seems compelled to punish solely to save face. The whole “Pokémon with guns” reputation and use of Pokéball-like “Pal Spheres” (potentially the crux of Nintendo’s patent case) read as parody to me, an impish skewering of the globally-recognized Pokémon brand, and far from an existential threat to Nintendo’s precious IP. Further, Palworld occupies a genre and audience (survival crafting on PC) Nintendo has never seemed particularly interested in.

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Palworld was never a threat to Nintendo’s profits or market share, but the publisher is bringing the hammer down regardless, seemingly compelled to remind us of its insecurity as an industry-leading, globally recognized company, an insecurity that runs so deep it just can’t help itself from calling in all the artillery it can muster on a largely unrelated, not-even-rival.

Burnishing the reputation of “Nintendo, the life-ruining legal entity” inherently comes at the cost of “Nintendo, the lovable toymaker.” It’s a tension that I think will one day affect the company’s bottom line⁠: I’m certainly considering disengaging from Nintendo products, even as rumors fly about the upcoming Switch 2. And even if its profits are secure for now, it’s hurting fans, game developers, and gaming in general, which can’t be good for anyone, Nintendo included.

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Bad for the Industry#

Bad for Nintendo#

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Bad for the Industry

Bad for Nintendo

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals