Palworld might be making another play for Pokemon's crown, snapping up shares in a Japanese card game publisher while Nintendo's lawsuit rumbles on in the background

Even before it was a viral sensation, Palworld was already known as the Pokemon-with-guns game thanks to its creature taming, collecting, and training loop. Developer Pocketpair then took another shot at Pokemon's crown with a merch and anime-focused Sony partnership, trying to recreate the cocktail that fuelled Pokemania. And, now, the company seemingly has its sights on Pokemon TCG.

That's because both Pocketpair and ACOS (an Animate subsidiary) bought up a big chunk of shares in Bushiroad, a Japanese card and video game publisher. Spotted by Gamebiz and translated by Automaton, the legal notice explains that the Bushiroad Corporation's CEO and president Takaaki Kidani is specifically selling some of his own shares.

How the shares are being split between Pocketpair and ACOS is unclear, but Kidani is reportedly giving away four million out of seven million of his directly-owned shares, decreasing his total stake in the company from 55.9% to 49.9%.

Of course, buying shares in any company isn't an indication that something like Palworld: The Trading Card Game is going to become a real thing soon. The whole ordeal is only notable because Pocketpair opened Palworld Entertainment just last year, an arm focused on turning the hit game into a hit multi-media franchise by chasing "merchandising activities," among other things. Again, it's the Pokemon playbook.

Thing is, the company's also in the midst of a major lawsuit at the hands of Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, both of which argue that Palworld is infringing upon "multiple patent rights" related to the decades-old creature-collecting series, something that "came as a shock" to the folks at Pocketpair. We'll see how that all shakes out in the coming months and years.

Palworld dev and Pocketpair publishing manager says "big things" have happened that he can't talk about for "at least a year or 2," and keeping the secret is "gonna kill me"