In a bad-vibes moment, they’re denying a huge outlet like IGN a review code. No matter what I think of IGN in particular (nothing good tbh), that’s not something I can find a real explanation for other than “We made DC’s Gollum and want to avoid bad press as long as we can”.
I doubt that’s got much to do with anything. Palworld is a pretty standard survival early access thing whose only distinguishing feature is that they’ve somehow evaded Nintendo’s lawyers until after the release window.
Maybe they sent the cease and desist to the wrong address, like there’s an 87 year old Japanese woman wondering what this strange letter is she received and what she’s done wrong.
This fuck up is entirely of Rocksteady’s own making. It might review amazing, but gamers have utterly soured on live service bullshit. The Arkham games were gamer’s games. They can’t just fob this off on us like they can with CoD or FIFA.
Nintendo is one of the most litigious game companies there is, and Palworld Dev is also based in Japan so there’s no international complications.
If Nintendo had an infringement case at all they’d already have buried Palworld.