Palworld Director: Nintendo Switch 2 Version Worth Considering if 'Beefy Enough'

When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, was launched, it drew immediate comparisons to Pokemon, with many dubbing it "Pokemon with guns." Although Pocketpair's communications director, John 'Bucky' Buckley, finds the comparison less than ideal, the allure of collecting a menagerie of adorable creatures has led many fans to wonder if Palworld would ever make its way to the Nintendo Switch, the traditional home of Pokemon games.

Unfortunately, Buckley 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 explained. During a conversation at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, following his talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop,' Buckley also touched on the possibility of a release for the rumored Nintendo Switch 2. He expressed interest but noted that Pocketpair hasn't yet had access to the new console's specifications. "We haven't seen those specs yet," he mentioned. "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 dealing with a lawsuit from Nintendo over alleged patent infringement concerning Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics. This legal battle has fueled speculation that it might be the true barrier preventing Palworld from appearing on the Switch. However, Buckley clarified during his GDC talk that the lawsuit isn't the primary reason for the absence of Palworld on Nintendo platforms. He briefly addressed the lawsuit, mentioning that it came as a surprise to the team, despite thorough legal checks prior to the game's release. "Pretty much everyone at Pocketpair is a huge fan [of Pokemon]," Buckley remarked, "so it was a very depressing day, everyone heads down and walking in the rain."

The looming question remains: would Nintendo allow a game it's taken issue with onto its next-generation console? As we await our full interview with Buckley at GDC, which will be posted later this week, now is an excellent time to dive back into Palworld, especially with the recent addition of cross-platform play in its latest update.