PocketPair, the studio behind survival-crafting game Palworld, will not be pushing its games towards live-service.
Palworld has been immensely successful with one of the highest concurrent player counts in Steam history, but the studio doesn’t want to exploit its players with the trappings of live-service support. While the game will still see support, the game won’t be inundated with micro-transactions, battle passes, and more.
“I can certainly understand why some people might expect us to take Palworld in that direction,” PocketPair head of publishing John Buckley said in an interview with MP1ST. “But. For us, we just want to make fun games in our own way.”
Buckley added that it may seem “a bit cliché” to push hard against the trend of successful games, but that’s simply not what the studio wants to do. “While we obviously want our games to be successful, maximising revenue as quickly as possible isn’t what drives our creative decisions,” he added.
Alongside Palworld itself, PocketPair has pushed into spin-offs and even physical games such as the official trading card game. However, the studio isn’t looking to hyper-monetise its existing game to siphon more cash from existing players.
With that said, Buckley explained that the base Palworld experience isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. “The main Palworld game remains extremely important to us, and these spin-offs are not intended to replace it,” they added. “We see them as new ways for players to enjoy the world and characters of Palworld from different perspectives.”
In a follow-up discussion on Twitter, Buckley explained that the studio “could probably turn Palworld into a big live-service game with tons of DLC and MTX, but I don’t think it’s the right way forward for us.” They added: “We’re really not as financially motivated as perhaps many think we are.”
“I understand that the astronomical success of Palworld has blurred the public’s perception of what Pocketpair actually is, but we are, in fact, still 100% self-owned and more importantly, 100% self-funded,” they continued.
Palworld is one of the most successful indie games of all time, and the game is still poised for years of additional support. The game’s massive 1.0 update released back in July, with the 1.1 update currently in development at the studio.
