A mysterious Palworld update appears to make a change designed to get around the survival game's legal battle with Nintendo
Dec. 10, 2024Summoning Pals is a bit different now
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FollowingNintendo’s patent lawsuit, Pocketpair has continued working on its smash-hit survival gamePalworldand, most recently, dropped an unexpected update that seemingly further separates the early access title fromPokemon.
The new Palworld patch notes onSteam detail"changes to player controls." While it’s not immediately clear what that means, players note that something previously flagged by Nintendo andThe Pokemon Companyas patent infringement now looks quite different. Rather than chucking a Pal Sphere to summon a Pal, much like one would toss a Pokeball for a Pokemon, Pals are now “always summoned near the player.” The new animation simply shows a Pal Sphere being unpocketed and a Pal subsequently appearing nearby.
The patch also contains a minor UI change altering how the reticle works, causing it to “now only be displayed while aiming.” The tweak to how Pal Spheres and summoning work most certainly seems to be the more significant update, though - and even if it isn’t necessarily tied to Nintendo’s patent lawsuit, it’s a handy adjustment nonetheless. As one player writes in a comment on the patch notes, it’s a “nice quality-of-life change.”
“I guess it’s just easy to be anti-Palworld”: Pocketpair developer responds to latest round of controversy as the survival hit squeezes past 20 other games at the TGAs
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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she’s not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she’s probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she’s spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur’s Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you’ll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.
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