Palworld Director Eyes Nintendo Switch 2 if It's Powerful Enough

When Pocketpair launched their monster capturing survival adventure game, Palworld, it quickly drew comparisons to the iconic Pokemon series, often being dubbed "Pokemon with guns." Despite the frequent comparisons, Pocketpair's communications director, John 'Bucky' Buckley, has made it clear that this is not their preferred association. Nonetheless, the allure of collecting adorable creatures has led many fans to wonder if Palworld could ever find its way to the Nintendo Switch, the traditional home of Pokemon games.

Unfortunately, Buckley has dashed those hopes, citing technical constraints. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game," he stated. I had the opportunity to discuss this further with Buckley at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week, following his engaging talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.' During our conversation, I also inquired about the possibility of a release on the rumored Nintendo Switch 2. Buckley expressed interest but noted that without access to the new console's specifications, it's too early to tell if a port is feasible.

"We haven't seen those specs yet," he explained. "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."

Amidst these technical discussions, Pocketpair is also navigating a lawsuit from Nintendo over alleged patent infringement related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics. This has led to speculation that the legal battle might be the true barrier preventing Palworld from appearing on the Switch. However, Buckley clarified during his GDC talk that the lawsuit was unexpected and not the primary reason for the absence of Palworld on Nintendo's platforms. He mentioned that the team had undertaken extensive legal reviews prior to the game's release to avoid such conflicts. "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 broader question remains: would Nintendo allow a game it's legally challenged to grace its next-generation console? As we await the answer, we'll be posting our full interview with Buckley later this week, so keep an eye out for more insights on Palworld. In the meantime, if you've taken a break from the game, now's a great time to dive back in, especially with the recent addition of cross-platform play in the latest update.