Palworld's PS5 console release on hold in Japan
Nintendo currently suing Pocketpair for patent infringement.
Palworld will not be releasing on PS5 in Japan for the time being.
Last night during PlayStation's State of Play broadcast, developer Pocketpair announced its monster-catching survival game was available to play for the first time on Sony's console.
However, while Palworld has debuted on PS5 across 68 countries and regions worldwide, it has not yet been released in Japan.
This detail was revealed by Palworld's Japanese social media team early this morning.
In a post shared on X, the account said "the release date in Japan has not yet been decided" (Google translated).
"We apologise to everyone in Japan who was looking forward to it, but all of our staff will do our best to deliver it to PS5 users as soon as possible, so we hope you will wait for a little longer," it continued. "We look forward to your continued support of Palworld."
While a reason for Japan's PS5 omission was not given, it is fair to surmise it has something to do with the fact Nintendo is suing Pocketpair for patent infringement. Pocketpair claims it's unaware of which patents it has infringed, though recent reports suggest it's a patent to do with how players throw Pokéballs.
Ahead of its release, many dubbed Palworld 'Pokémon with guns' due to its similarities with Nintendo's own creature-catching game. Palworld was the first big mega-hit of 2024, surpassing 2m concurrent players on Steam back in January. It was only the second game to ever achieve this, the other being PUBG.
Eurogamer has asked Pocketpair and Sony for further comment.