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

When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, launched, it quickly drew comparisons to Pokemon, earning the nickname "Pokemon with guns." Although Pocketpair's communications director, John 'Bucky' Buckley, isn't fond of the comparison, the allure of collecting adorable monsters has led many to wonder if Palworld might make its way to the Nintendo Switch. Unfortunately, Buckley has dashed those hopes, citing technical limitations. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game," he explained.

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, following his talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop,' Buckley discussed the potential of a Nintendo Switch 2 release. He 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," Buckley said. "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 related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics. This has led some to speculate that the lawsuit might be the real reason Palworld hasn't appeared on the Switch. However, Buckley clarified during his GDC talk that the lawsuit isn't the primary barrier to releasing on Nintendo's platforms. He mentioned that the lawsuit came as a surprise to the team, despite their efforts to conduct thorough legal checks before the game's release. "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 question remains whether Nintendo would allow a game it has taken issue with to be released on its next-generation console. We'll be posting our full interview with Buckley later this week, so stay tuned for more insights on Palworld. In the meantime, if you've taken a break from the game, now's a great time to jump back in, as Palworld recently introduced cross-platform play in its latest update.