Summary
- Palworld team satisfied with player base and plans to offer long-term support.
- The team never saw Palworld as a live-service title.
- Pocketpair hints at expanding Palworld IP with new games, but no plans for a sequel.
It’s been a tough month for Palworld. In September, Nintendo and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Pokemon Company announced they were 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:filing a lawsuit aga꧙inst developers Pocketpair for “infringing multiple patent rights.”
The Japanese indie developer 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:released a statement of its own vowing to fight the suit, with the game’s community 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:rallying around the surprise mega-hit.
Palworld Game Mechanics May Have To Be Reworked, Says Lawyer 🍌
Nintendo's lawsuit again🅷st Pocket Pair might force the devs to make big changes to Palworld or remove it from stores altogether, explains🎀 a lawyer.
With the legal battle at the forefront of its mind, I spoke to Pocketpair as part of this year’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tokyo Game Show, and while the lawsuit was off the table, the 🐼team discussed dealing with its success, the ‘dead game’ allegations, and its plans for the future.
Dealing With Overnight Success
“The idea for Palworld came from our desire to blend various game genres and offꦓer a new experience,” the devs tell me. “The monster-catching element provides a sense of familiarity and exploration, while the survival and action aspects add a unique twist to the gameplay.”
It was this unique “Pokemon with guns” idea that saw the game 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:sell three million copies in two days, making it one of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the most-played titles of all time.
“We were pleasantly surprised by Palworld's early success,” the team says. “More than anything, though, we are grateful that players embraced this new experience. The unique concept resonated with many players, and our focus🌳 on listening to feedback and growing alongside our community played a big part in iไts success.”
Rather than focusing on sudden spikes in concurrent players, we value sustained support a🍒nd the growth of our community.
At its peak, Palworld had over two million concurrent players, with an average of over a million across January, a number that was clearly unsustainable. The game has now settled with a , a number that is still more than respectable but has mea🦋nt that Palworld has received the infamous ‘dead game’ label, something the team isn’t too bothered about.
“We are very satisfied with the c𓃲urrent player base. Palworld is a game that allows players to enjoy at their own pace, and we aim for long-term growth. Rather than focusing on sudden spikes in concurre⭕nt players, we value sustained support and the growth of our community.”
Despite its ov💯ernight success, Pocketpair says that its team hasn’t grown too much, preferring to stay small and agile. “We haven’t made any significant expansion to the team. The size of the team remains flexible, and we continue to operate in a way that best suits each project’s needs.”
Dispelling The Free-To-Play Rumors
Ahead of Tokyo Game Show, rumors surfaced, and were quickly shot down, that Palworld was considering going down the free-to-play route. The team says this was something that was never going to happen, instead saying it intends to support the game as it is for the foreseeable futuܫre.
We plan to support the game for a long tim🍨e, offering new conte🌜nt and updates…
“We never envisioned Palworld as a live-service game because we wanted to provide a rich gameplay experience where players can enjoy the game at their own pace. We plan to suppor✨t the game for a long time, offering new content and updates based on the feedback from our player community. Our goal is to continue evolving and growing the game.”
One of the updates that was confirmed during the show was the much-anticipated PS5 version of the game, with the team confirming that it had always been the plan to release on Sony’ജs console.
“The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation 5 version was part of our plans from the beginning. However, we prioritized delivering the best experience for p🍃layers on the initial platforms first, with the strategy of gradually expanding to other platforms. For the PS5 version, we aimed to release it at the optimal time to ensure it provided a satisfying experience for players.”
The Future Of The Palworld IP
When discussing growing the studio, the team used the term “each project’s needs.” This was the first hint that Pocketpair has more cooking with the Palworld IP. Krafton’s PUBG Studios recently confirmed it was 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:working on a Palworld mobile title, but details beyond that have remained sparse.
“We believe the world of Palworld holds many possibilities. While we can’t share specific details at the moment, we are always exploring ideas to further expand thi⛄s universe in different genres and approaches,” the team tells me.
While more games are clearly in the works, something that Pocketpair hasn’t begun planning yet is a sequel, with its full focus on Palw🌳orld’s base game.🍨
“We haven’t made a𒉰ny plans for a sequel, but we are always thinking about ways to expand the world of Palworld further. For now, we’re focused on bringing new content and updates to our players.”
We are very interested in the possibility ofಞ an anime adaptation, but there are no plans at the moment.
In July, a joint venture with Sony M𒉰usic Entertainment to establish Palworld Entertainment, Inc. with the aim of “accelerating♈ the multifaceted global development of Palworld and its further expansion.” Naturally, this led to rumors that an anime series is in the works, something the company denies—for now.
“We are very interested in the possibility of an anime adaptation, but there are no plans at the moment. The world and characters of Palworld would certainly lend themselves 🦄well to animation, so we’re open to exploring that possibility in the future.”
It seems that despite the threat of Nintendo looming over it, Pocketpair is very much planning to stick true to its word, ꦜvowing to “,” with multiple projects evidently planned for Palworld’s future.
Palworld has been described as Pokemon with guns and well, it's hard to argue with that. The game is very similar in nature to the Pokemon formula, tasking you with catching and working with monsters called Pals. There are key differences, though. Palworld is rooted in multiplayer, oh, and, unlike Pokemon, its Pals have guns.
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
