PUBG Studios is bringing Palworld to mobile

A mobile game based on Palworld is on the way, it’s been announced.

South Korean publisher Krafton, which owns PUBG Studios and The Callisto Protocol studio Striking Distance, announced that it has “signed a licensing agreement with Japanese game developer Pocketpair for the intellectual property of Palworld”.

“Through this contract, Krafton will expand the Palworld IP to the mobile platform”, it added.

While it’s not yet clear whether the game will be a direct port of the console and PC version of Palworld or something completely different, Krafton has at least confirmed that the mobile version “will be handled by the development team of PUBG Studios”.

Krafton says it “plans to faithfully reinterpret and implement the original’s main fun elements to fit the mobile environment”.

Palworld was released on PS5 last week, but developer Pocketpair is being sued by fellow Japanese firms Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

The companies are seeking an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages “on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights”, but more details on exactly which patents it believes have been infringed have yet to be shared.

In August, Krafton announced that it had acquired Tango Gameworks, seemingly rescuing it from Microsoft’s plan to shut it down.

“We wanted to maintain their legacy,” Krafton CEO Changhan Kim said in an interview with Game Developer. “Although they did not have a big success in their games, we saw many creatives worth pursuing. That’s why we wanted to work with that organisation.”