Palworld Director: Nintendo Switch 2 Version Viable with Sufficient Power

When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, launched, it quickly drew comparisons to the iconic Pokemon series, often being dubbed "Pokemon with guns." While Pocketpair's communications director, John 'Bucky' Buckley, isn't thrilled with the comparison, the allure of collecting cute creatures has sparked interest among fans, leading many to wonder if Palworld would ever find its way to the Nintendo Switch, the preferred platform for Pokemon enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, Buckley has confirmed that a Nintendo Switch release isn't on the horizon, citing technical limitations. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game," he explained.

During the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, following his talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop,' Buckley shared more insights. When asked about the possibility of a Nintendo Switch 2 release, he expressed interest but noted that Pocketpair has yet to review the new console's specifications. "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."

He 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 navigating a lawsuit from Nintendo over alleged patent infringement related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics. This has led to speculation that the legal battle might be the real 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 on Nintendo's platforms. He mentioned that the lawsuit came as a surprise to the team, despite having conducted numerous 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.

Stay tuned for our full interview with Buckley at GDC later this week 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 with its latest update.