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

When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure game, Palworld, was released, it quickly drew comparisons to Pokemon, with many dubbing it "Pokemon with guns." Despite this, Pocketpair's communications director, John 'Bucky' Buckley, has expressed that the studio isn't fond of the comparison. However, the allure of collecting a following of adorable creatures has led many fans to wonder if Palworld could ever make its way to the Nintendo Switch, the favored platform of Pokemon enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, according to Buckley, a Switch release isn't on the horizon due to technical limitations. "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 speak with Buckley at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco following his talk, 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.' During our conversation, I also inquired about the possibility of a Nintendo Switch 2 release. Buckley expressed interest but noted that Pocketpair hasn't yet seen the specifications for the next-gen console. "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," he shared.

Buckley added, "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 entangled in a lawsuit from Nintendo over alleged patent infringement related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics. This has led some to speculate that legal issues might be the actual reason Palworld hasn't made it to the Switch. However, Buckley clarified during his GDC talk that the lawsuit isn't the primary barrier to releasing games on Nintendo's platforms. He mentioned that the legal action caught the team by surprise despite having conducted numerous legal checks before the game's release. "Pretty much everyone at Pocketpair is a huge fan [of Pokemon]," Buckley said, "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's taken such issue with on its next-gen console. We'll be posting our full interview with Buckley at GDC later this week, so keep checking back for more updates on Palworld. In the meantime, it's a great opportunity to revisit the game, especially with the recent addition of cross-platform play in a new update last week.