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

When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, was released, it quickly drew comparisons to Pokemon, often being dubbed "Pokemon with guns." Despite the comparison not being Pocketpair's favorite, as noted by communications director John 'Bucky' Buckley, the allure of collecting adorable monsters has led many to wonder if Palworld would ever make its way to the Nintendo Switch, the preferred platform for Pokemon games.

Unfortunately, Buckley has confirmed that a Switch release is unlikely due to technical constraints. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game," he explained. This statement came during a conversation at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, following Buckley's talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.'

When asked about the possibility of a release on the rumored Nintendo Switch 2, Buckley expressed interest but noted that Pocketpair has not yet seen the specifications of the new console. "We haven't seen those specs yet," he 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."

Pocketpair is currently involved in a lawsuit with 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 been released on the Switch. However, Buckley clarified during his GDC talk that the lawsuit was unexpected and that the team had conducted extensive legal checks before the game's release to avoid such issues. "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 will be posting our full interview with Buckley from GDC later this week, so stay tuned 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 the latest update.