Palworld is set to be developed for mobile devices, courtesy of a new partnership between developer Pocketpair and PUBG: Battlegrounds publisher, Krafton. As announced, Krafton has acquired the global license to port Palworld to mobile, and now has plans to “faithfully reinterpret” the game for a new audience.
The project is currently in development at PUBG Studios, which is a development-focussed off-shoot of Krafton. Based on wording, the mobile version in will essentially be the same game as the PC and console Palworld. There may be reductions in visual capability and tweaks for its control scheme, but minimal overarching changes are anticipated.
For now, Krafton hasn’t expanded on its plans, or provided any indication of release date, but we can expect to hear more about Palworld for mobile in the coming months.
If not about the mobile game specifically, we’ll certainly hear more about Palworld imminently, as it’s currently the subject of a major lawsuit brought by Nintendo.
As previously reported, Nintendo is currently suing Pocketpair, alleging Palworld infringes on its patents. Per a legal filing, the lawsuit “seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights.”
Read: Pocketpair says it will fight Palworld lawsuit for all indie devs
In a response, Pocketpair confirmed it would fight the lawsuit, while lamenting that core development resources would need to be reallocated to deal with the matter.
“It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit,” Pocketpair said at the time. “However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”
At this stage, it doesn’t appear that plans for a mobile version of Palworld will be significantly impacted by the ongoing legal proceedings with Nintendo, as Krafton will work on the upcoming port independently. Regardless, the lawsuit remains a complication – as any verdict handed down on the base version of Palworld will inevitably involve the mobile version, as well.
We’ll have to stay tuned to see how this all pans out, and to see what Krafton has planned for Palworld‘s mobile port.
