A mysterious Palworld update appears to make a change designed to get around the survival game's legal battle with Nintendo

Palworld screenshot showing a green dinosaur-like creature with a red mushroom cap atop its head sitting in a wooden hot tub — (Image credit: Pocketpair)

Following Nintendo's patent lawsuit, Pocketpair has continued working on its smash-hit survival game Palworld and, most recently, dropped an unexpected update that seemingly further separates the early access title from Pokemon.

The new Palworld patch notes on Steam detail "changes to player controls." While it's not immediately clear what that means, players note that something previously flagged by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company as patent infringement now looks quite different. Rather than chucking a Pal Sphere to summon a Pal, much like one would toss a Pokeball for a Pokemon, Pals are now "always summoned near the player." The new animation simply shows a Pal Sphere being unpocketed and a Pal subsequently appearing nearby.

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The patch also contains a minor UI change altering how the reticle works, causing it to "now only be displayed while aiming." The tweak to how Pal Spheres and summoning work most certainly seems to be the more significant update, though - and even if it isn't necessarily tied to Nintendo's patent lawsuit, it's a handy adjustment nonetheless. As one player writes in a comment on the patch notes, it's a "nice quality-of-life change."

There's more in store for the survival game, too, with Pocketpair currently teaming up with Re-Logic for a Palworld and Terraria crossover in 2025. A massive new update said to be six times bigger than the Sakurajima patch is also in the works right now and is set to be released sometime later this month. There's no telling what else the future holds, or how Nintendo's lawsuit might continue to shape Palworld's path out of early access.

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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.