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Krafton's PUBG Studios Agrees to Develop Palworld Mobile Game

South Korean game developer Krafton announced on Wednesday that it has signed a licensing agreement with Japanese game developer Pocketpair for the IP (intellectual property) of its Palworld game. Through the contract, Krafton will expand the game's IP to the mobile platform.

Krafton stated that it plans to adapt and implement the game's original elements to the mobile environment. Krafton's PUBG Studios will handle the project's development.

Krafton is the owner of PUBG Studios, the developers of the popular battle royale shooter PUBG: Battlegrounds, which Krafton also published. Krafton published The Callisto Protocol, which was originally intended to be a spinoff of PUBG: Battlegrounds. Krafton acquired the Tango Gameworks game studio (The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Hi-Fi Rush), as well as the IP rights to the studio's Hi-Fi Rush game from Microsoft, in August.

Pocketpair debuted its Palworld multiplayer survival game on January 19 as a Steam Early Access game. The game reached 25 million users within a month of its release.

The game launched for the PlayStation 5 console on September 24 in 68 countries and territories, except in Japan. The game's PlayStation 5 launch date in Japan is still to be determined.

Sony Music Entertainment Japan Inc. announced in July that it and its subsidiary Aniplex, along with Pocketpair, have established a new joint venture named Palworld Entertainment.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair at the Tokyo District Court on September 18. The suit claims that the game infringes on Nintendo and The Pokémon Company's patent rights, and seeks an injunction against infringement as well as compensation for damages. Pocketpair responded by stating it is "unaware of the specific patents [it is] accused of infringing upon, and [it has] not been notified of such details." The company stated it will begin legal proceedings and investigations into the claims.

Players and critics initially noted the similarity of the designs of many of the game's "Pal" creatures to the Pokémon franchise's titular Pokémon. The Pokémon Company released a statement shortly after Palworld's release that it was investigating a possible copyright infringement by an unnamed game company.

Source: Krafton via Gematsu, Gamebiz, Famitsu.com