"Oh my god, it's actually true!": Asmongold couldn't believe Palworld removed Poké-ball type throwing mechanics after Nintendo lawsuit

Twitch streamer Zach "Asmongold" consistently reports on the latest the gaming world has to offer. Recently, The legal dispute between Nintendo and Pocket Pair, the creators of Palworld, has escalated as Nintendo alleges the game infringes on intellectual property related to its Pokémon franchise. Filed in September 2024, the lawsuit highlights similarities between Palworld's mechanics.

The specific mechanic in question was the use of "Pal Spheres" to summon creatures, similar to Pokémon's iconic Poké Balls. Notably, Pocket Pair has removed the Pal Spheres concept from its game. Asmongold reacted to this, visibly shocked:

"Oh my God! It's actually true!... They no longer open things with the balls."

This update was brought to Asmon via a post on his subreddit, r/Asmongold, and to verify, he booted up Palworld. To his surprise, the game characters no longer used Spheres.

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Breaking down Asmongold's thoughts on Nintendo's Palworld lawsuit

Despite these legal challenges, Palworld continues to grow its player base, with a major update in December 2024 introducing a new island six times larger than previous maps. Nintendo's actions align with its history of aggressively protecting its franchises, often targeting fan projects and competitors perceived to borrow elements from its games.

Asmongold noticed this in his reaction to the Palworld update and feared that Nintendo's aggressive behavior may hinder any developers looking to gain success in the industry:

"It's telling every big company that the way you wanna make money is basically buying up all of the conceptual real estate of video games, turning it into patents, and making it to where you pull up the ladder from any other individual developer from being able to make a product that can compete with your product."

Nintendo's patent on the concept of summoning creatures, which involves launching objects like Poké Balls at creatures in a game to capture or interact with them, was filed as part of the development of Pokémon Legends: Arceus in 2021.

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In addition to protecting, intellectual property, Nintendo has also faced struggles with the rise of emulators and piracy, especially as platforms like Twitch and YouTube have become common places for sharing pirated games.

One notable case involved streamer Jesse Keighin, also known as "EveryGameGuru," who streamed pirated Switch games before their official release.