TOKYO, July 21 — Pocketpair, the Japanese developer behind the phenomenon Palworld, began its corporate life in an unusual place: the cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck. Company founder Takuro Mizobe studied at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, completed an internship at Nintendo Game Seminar, and later joined JPMorgan Chase. He resigned to launch a bitcoin exchange before turning to video games.
The firm was founded in 2015, based in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Half of Pocketpair’s initial development team came from the Nintendo Game Seminar; half from university.
Their first title, Overdungeon, a roguelike deck-building game, entered early access in November 2018 and was published by Chinese firm Lightning Games. Contract issues forced Pocketpair to abandon updates, and they moved on to Craftopia, an open-world survival crafting game released in early access in September 2020. Craftopia drew inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Minecraft, and ARK: Survival Evolved.
From Craftopia to Palworld
Pocketpair later regained full rights to Overdungeon. On January 9, 2025, the game was released for Nintendo Switch with its first update in four years. Meanwhile, six months after Craftopia’s early access, the company began developing Palworld and significantly expanded its staff.
The game was announced in June 2021 at INDIE Live Expo, intended for completion within a year but delayed. In May 2023, they announced another title, Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse.
Palworld’s development was further delayed from August 2023; a network test ran in November 2023, and early access launched in January 2024 for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. PlayStation 5 followed in September 2024. In between, Pocketpair released AI Art Impostor for Windows, Android, and iOS in November 2022.
A macOS early access for Palworld was announced in June 2024.
A Joint Venture and a Lawsuit
In July 2024, Pocketpair partnered with Sony Music Entertainment Japan and its subsidiary Aniplex to form Palworld Entertainment, Inc., a joint venture for licensing and merchandising. First products appeared at Bilibili World 2024 in Shanghai. The same year brought a different kind of attention.
On September 19, 2024, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair in the Tokyo District Court. The details of the complaint remain sealed, but the legal action has cast a shadow over the studio’s rapid success.
For all the noise, the salient point is that a Japanese indie developer that began with a deck-building game now faces two of the most powerful companies in the industry. What comes next depends on the court.
