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

When Pocketpair released their monster capturing survival game, Palworld, it quickly drew comparisons to Pokemon, earning the nickname "Pokemon with guns." Despite the comparisons, which communications director John 'Bucky' Buckley admits are not their favorite, the allure of collecting cute creatures has led many to wonder if Palworld might make its way to Nintendo's beloved platform, the Nintendo Switch.

Unfortunately, according to Buckley, a Switch release isn't feasible due to technical constraints. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game," he explained. I had the opportunity to speak with Buckley at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, following his insightful talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.' During our conversation, I inquired about the prospects of a release on the rumored Nintendo Switch 2. Buckley expressed interest but noted that Pocketpair hasn't yet had access to the new console's specifications. "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."

He added that if the next Switch model is powerful enough, it would definitely be worth considering. "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."

There's also been speculation that a lawsuit from Nintendo over alleged patent infringement related to Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics might be the real reason Palworld hasn't appeared on Switch. However, Buckley clarified that the lawsuit isn't the barrier to releasing on Nintendo's platforms, as evidenced by other releases. In his GDC talk, he briefly touched on the lawsuit, noting it came as a surprise to the team despite their thorough legal checks before 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 welcome a game it's in legal contention with onto its next-generation console.

Stay tuned for our full interview with Buckley at GDC, which we'll be posting later this week. In the meantime, if you've taken a break from Palworld, now's a great time to dive back in, especially with the new update that introduced cross-platform play last week.