Palworld developer Pocketpair is embroiled in a legal battle with Nintendo and The Pokemon Company after the two companies filed a lawsuit in 2024 alleging that Palworld maker had infringed upon three patents. This has led to some changes to the hit survival game, one of which has now been modded back to its original state by a fan.
Pocketpair first changed Palworld with an update last year that removed the ability to summon Pals with the Poke Ball-esque Pal Spheres. Then, last week the game was updated to change the gliding mechanics to now require players to have a glider item as opposed to gliding on their pals; presumably in response to the patent that appeared to be related to the Ride Pokemon mechanic in Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
However, the Palworld fan community clearly found this to be an unacceptable change and has taken matters into its own hands. Nexus Mods user Primarinabee released the "Glider Restoration" mod to the game this week (spotted by IGN), which allows you to glide on the back of your Pals once again.
The description for the mod just gives the simple message of "Palworld Patch 0.5.5? What? That didn't happen!" However, the modder goes into more detail, saying, "For those of you who love flying with your Pals, this mod uses sleight of hand to reverse the sleight-of-hand 'removal' of gliding Pals.
"You still need a glider in your inventory, and it's not QUITE perfect, but it basically reverses Patch 0.5.5 without requiring you to forego future game updates."
Obviously, it's too early to know how the lawsuit will turn out, but hopefully we get to a point where Pocketpair can add these mechanics back into the game officially, as the team clearly wasn't happy about removing the most recent one, noting: "We understand that this will be disappointing for many, just as it is for us."
"I think this will end bad for Pocketpair": Analyst says Nintendo's "feared" legal team wouldn't sue Palworld unless it was confident of victory.
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