In a recent interview with Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe, it was hinted that the studio's hit survival game Palworld could soon become free-to-play in order to “extend its lifespan.” The company has clarified that the interview was conducted months ago and that there are no longer any such plans.
“We are not changing the business model of our game,” the studio tweeted today, “it will remain a for-purchase game and not free-to-play or free-to-play.” [game as a service]An article was recently published in which we talked about the possible future direction of Palworld and ideas for continuing the game for a long time. In fact, this interview was conducted several months ago.
The memo explains that Pocketpair was still “considering the best way to move forward with Palworld” at the time of the interview because the team wanted a “long-lasting game that continues to grow.” Pocketpair is apparently still talking about how to make sure “Pokemon with guns” stays relevant, but has ruled out the live service approach entirely.
“Palworld was never designed with that model in mind, and it would require too much work to adapt the game at this point,” the announcement continues. “Furthermore, we are very aware that this is not what our players want, and we always put our players first.”
Pocketpair is now considering cosmetics and paid DLC “as a means to support development,” though says the team is primarily focused on making Palworld “the best game possible.”
Palworld was a huge hit when it debuted earlier this year, breaking records on Steam, Xbox, and Game Pass. The CEO even announced that it had generated revenue “in the tens of billions of yen” (at least $70 million) thanks to the survival/monster-taming hybrid.
For more games like Palworld, be sure to check out our roundup of the best games in the category. The best survival games.