Palworld has been a major success on PC and Xbox Series, with a PS5 port looking more likely as the days go by. Fans have wondered if the creature-catching survival game will end up on Nintendo Switch, aka Pokémon’s home turf, but the devs have said this isn’t likely.
Takuro Mizobe, the CEO of developer Pocket Pair Inc, told Game File (via VGC) that their game won’t be coming to Swich for “technical reasons.” While Mizobe previously said that the devs are open to bringing this game to more consoles, the CEO admits that the game is too much for Nintendo’s current console.
Fans who have played Palworld do recognize this, as the survival game’s visuals do seem too strong for the current Switch model. Nintendo’s upcoming Switch successor wasn’t mentioned, but there is hope that it can handle more graphically intense games. Depending on its power, we wouldn’t be surprised if that will be able to handle the Pokémon clone.
Most Switch owners will agree that the handheld/console hybrid is pretty underpowered, even though it is home to some gorgeous games. In-house games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom look great on this system. On the other side of the spectrum, some third-party devs have been able to make miracle ports like The Witcher 3 and Dragon Quest 11.
Nintendo’s Switch also doesn’t have the best online capabilities, with even some of their first-party multiplayer games struggling with this. Considering how Palworld is designed with multiplayer in mind, the devs might want to wait for the Switch 2 before making plans to port this.
Palworld had a brief feud with Pokémon, to the point that The Pokémon Company had to launch an “investigation” in regards to claims of counterfeiting. Nothing really came out of that, so we assume that there’s no bad blood and a possible port will come for the next system.
Curious fans can check out Palworld right now on PC and Xbox Series consoles.
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