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

When Pocketpair released their monster capturing survival adventure game, Palworld, it quickly drew comparisons to Pokemon, earning the nickname "Pokemon with guns." Despite the comparisons not being Pocketpair's favorite, as noted by communications director John 'Bucky' Buckley, the allure of collecting and commanding a squad of cute creatures has led many fans to wonder if Palworld would ever find its way onto the Nintendo Switch, Pokemon's preferred platform.

However, Buckley has dashed those hopes, citing technical constraints as the primary obstacle. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game," he explained. During a conversation at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco following his talk, 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop,' Buckley also touched on the potential for a Nintendo Switch 2 release. While Pocketpair is keen on the idea, they haven't yet had the opportunity to assess its feasibility due to the lack of available specs. "We haven't seen those specs yet," Buckley noted. "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 speculation that a lawsuit from Nintendo over alleged patent infringement regarding Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics might be the real reason Palworld isn't on the Switch, Buckley clarified that the legal battle isn't what's stopping them from releasing games on Nintendo's platforms. In his GDC talk, he briefly addressed the lawsuit, mentioning it caught the team off guard despite extensive 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 lingering question remains: would Nintendo approve a game it has taken legal action against for its next-gen console? We'll have more from our full interview with Buckley at GDC later this week, so stay tuned for further insights on Palworld. In the meantime, if you've taken a break from the game, now's a great time to dive back in, as Palworld recently introduced cross-platform play with its latest update.