Palworld has been released on PS5 in Japan, despite the fact that a lawsuit from Nintendo is looming in the background for developer and publisher Pocketpair.
The creature-collecting survival game was surprise-launched on PS5 last week as part of Sony's State of Play presentation, but at the time, Pocketpair said the Japanese release date for the game on Sony's console had "not yet been decided".
Now, however, a new message on the official Japanese Palworld X (formerly Twitter) account confirms that Pocketpair's game is available to buy on PS5 in Japan right now. I guess that means the studio managed to decide on a release date.
While Pocketpair has never outright stated the reason for the delayed Japanese PS5 release of Palworld, it's likely due to a lawsuit filed by Nintendo in September.
The lawsuit alleges "patent infringement" on the part of Pocketpair, although Nintendo's official announcement stops shy of explaining exactly which patent the gaming giant is hoping to catch Pocketpair out on.
Given Palworld's similarity to Pokemon, not just in terms of creature designs but in several other areas as well, I imagine there's a number of potential angles of attack Nintendo could be...