Palworld has been busy trying to bear the brunt of the Nintendo lawsuit without slowing down the progress of the game, but it has met some hiccups along the way. While Palworld’s upcoming December update for the “largest, harshest and most mysterious new island” has fans in a tizzy, the version 0.3.11 update has broken the game just a little bit.
With the new version of the game for Xbox and PC, the behavior of player-owned pals has changed, making it so that the pals are spawned right next to the player instead of landing at a position of the user’s choosing. Before we get into Palworld’s new island update, let’s understand the issues detailed in the patch notes for 0.3.11.

Image: Palworld
Palworld’s December Update Has Users “Downgrading” the Game
The Palworld game update issue came to light after users upgraded their game to the latest version, which left them unable to play the game comfortably due to a slight change in player interaction and UI. Since the update, users can no longer throw the pal out to the position where they want them and instead end up with the pal summoned next to them.
This does not sound like a major issue at first, however, players have found their pals spawning and getting trapped in the terrain around them, affecting the pals’ movement capabilities.
This Palworld game update issue has resulted in gamers turning to Discord and Reddit to understand how to remove the update so they can continue with the older format of the game unhindered.
Downgrading a game can be a source of future issues once more updates come out, however, for now, fans appear convinced that it is the best way to keep playing the game until Pocketpair makes some changes to the mechanism.
Palworld Update Breaks the Game but Why Did Pocketpair Make This Change to Begin With?
As frustrating as the updated version of the game is, it is likely to be a temporary change. Pocketpair is being sued by Nintendo over the similarities the game has with Pokemon. Nintendo has stated multiple patent infringements that have to do with the in-game mechanics instead of the game concept or design, which means that Palword could eventually be required to change major features of the game.
As WindowsCentral and multiple users online have pointed out, the launching of the pals into the open world is very similar to the mechanics of aiming and throwing creatures. Perhaps the update has been rolled out to end the use of the familiar game details temporarily until designers can come up with something new and then code and design it into the game.
You know about the update Palworld got, right?
Is speculated the changes were done to try avoiding some of Nintendo’s patents.
The problem, is that it also generated new issues, like having no reticle when using this mounted pal ability. pic.twitter.com/kqiw4VuH6z
— Nakano15 (@Nakano18Online) December 1, 2024
Users on Reddit have responded to the Palworld game update issue with a plethora of their own ideas on how the launching mechanic could be designed, from suggesting a Pal portal gun to a frisbee disk cage. Their unending creativity should serve as sufficient inspiration for Pocketpair to address and fix the game as soon as possible.

Image: Palworld’s expansion looks enthralling.
Palworld’s New Island Update Is All Set to Expand the Borders of the Game
Palworld developer Pocketpair took to the Discord, Twitter/X, and Steam page on November 28 to explain the upcoming island expansion, which is expected to be about six times the size of Sakurajima—the region that came with the last update. This will include all new tower bosses and the promise of vicious new species of pals.
The announcement arrived with a few new images of the changes scheduled for the game, but developers haven’t detailed what they mean. The gold loot suggests there could be a new event or method to stock up on the riches and the crystal caverns could just be a new scenic location or a new resource. The new gold-toned pal also looks like a hard-hitter so we’re excited to hear more major patch details for Palworld.
2024 isn’t finished yet for Palworld and we have some exciting news about the next update coming VERY SOON…
But first, we want to tell you about something happening in 2025!
! ! ! Palworld x Terraria ! ! !
More info coming soon! @terraria_logic pic.twitter.com/nmLpkPCn2t
— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) November 27, 2024
To round things up, there’s also a Palworld x Terraria collaboration on the horizon. The developer has maintained its silence on the specifics of the collaboration, and all we do know is that we’re going to have to wait till 2025 to learn more. Fans are extremely excited to uncover how these two worlds will come together, so despite the disappointing start to the Palworld December update, things are still looking up for the pal-collecting game.