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

When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, was launched, it quickly drew comparisons to Pokemon, earning the nickname "Pokemon with guns." While Pocketpair's communications director, John 'Bucky' Buckley, isn't fond of this comparison, the allure of collecting adorable creatures has sparked interest among fans, prompting questions about a potential release on the Nintendo Switch.

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 stated.

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During the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, following Buckley's talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop,' I had the opportunity to discuss the possibility of a release on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. Buckley expressed interest but noted that without access to the new console's specifications, it's too early to tell if a port is feasible. "We haven't seen those specs yet," he explained. "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."

Despite ongoing legal battles with Nintendo over alleged patent infringement related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics, Buckley emphasized that the lawsuit isn't the primary barrier to releasing Palworld on Nintendo's platforms. In January, he briefly touched on the lawsuit during his GDC talk, mentioning that it caught the team off guard despite thorough legal checks prior to the game's launch. "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 be open to hosting a game it has contested on its next-generation console.

We'll be posting our full interview with Buckley from GDC later this week, so keep checking back for more updates on Palworld. In the meantime, it's a great time to revisit the game, especially with the recent addition of cross-platform play in the latest update.