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

When Pocketpair launched their monster capturing survival adventure, Palworld, it quickly drew comparisons to Pokemon, with many dubbing it "Pokemon with guns." Despite the comparison not being favored by Pocketpair's communications director, John 'Bucky' Buckley, the allure of collecting adorable monsters has sparked interest in whether Palworld might ever appear on the Nintendo Switch. Unfortunately, Buckley has confirmed that a Switch release is unlikely due to technical constraints, stating, "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game."

I had the opportunity to speak with Buckley at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco following his talk titled 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.' During our conversation, I inquired about the potential for a Nintendo Switch 2 release. Buckley expressed interest but noted that Pocketpair hasn't yet had a chance to assess the feasibility of such a port. "We haven't seen those specs yet," he mentioned. "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."

Pocketpair is currently involved in a lawsuit from 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 isn't what's preventing the studio from releasing games on Nintendo's platforms. He briefly touched on the lawsuit, expressing that it came as a surprise to the team, despite thorough legal checks conducted 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 question remains whether Nintendo would permit a game it has taken issue with to be released on its next-generation console.

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