Nintendo and The Pokémon Co. are suing the makers of Palworld, claiming the game infringes on the “Pocket Monster” franchise’s patents, according to a statement from Nintendo on Thursday. Representatives for Nintendo, The Pokémon Co. and Pocketpair did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. Some players said they noticed that the characters in the game appear similar to those in the Pokémon franchise. Palworld is not the first indie video game to bear comparisons to other wildly popular games made by a major studio (often called triple-A studios). Steam data shows Palworld is the third-most-played game of all time on the platform.

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Persons: Palworld, “, Pocketpair, ”, Sparkit, Fntastic, Takuro Mizobe, Palworld “, ” Palworld, Geoff Keighley Organizations: Nintendo, Court, Defendant, NBC News, “ Nintendo, Steam, “ Locations: Tokyo, TheGamer