The company behind Palworld, Pocketpair, wants to launch the game on other systems, and is interested in forming new partnerships and making acquisitions.
Following its successful start big hit in January, Palworld’s interest has decreased noticeably, though not surprisingly, in recent months.
The game, where players catch monsters to survive and is often referred to as ‘Pokémon with guns’, came out in early access on PC and Xbox game consoles earlier this year. A month after its release in February, the game had sold over 15 million copies on Steam and gained over 10 million players on Xbox, partly because it was available on Xbox Game Pass.
While data from SteamDB shows that Palworld is becoming less popular (its highest player count in the past 24 hours was just over 110,000 on Steam, a sharp decrease from the all-time peak of 2 million in January), Pocketpair is working on releasing the game on other platforms, possibly to give it a fresh start.
In a recent interview, the CEO of Pocketpair, Takuro Mizobe, talked about the future of the studio after the success of Palworld, revealing that the studio is in discussions to bring the game to more platforms and is open to being acquired by another company.
‘The company is in discussions to bring Palworld to more platforms, other than Steam and Game Pass, and is willing to consider offers for partnership or acquisition,’ according to Bloomberg. However, the studio claims it hasn’t ‘engaged in acquisition talks with Microsoft’.
While the specific platforms aren’t mentioned, it’s likely one of these talks is with Sony for a PlayStation 5 version. There seems no reason why it couldn’t appear on Sony’s console but a Nintendo Switch release seems far less likely.
The Pokémon Company, which is part owned by Nintendo, said they intended to investigate Palworld for potentially infringing on Pokémon intellectual property rights, although so far they’ve not said anything more.
In other parts of the interview, Mizobe mentioned their desire to ‘stay as a small studio’ despite the success of Palworld, with the team currently consisting of 55 people. ‘I want to create several small games,’ he said. ‘Big budget triple-A games are not for us.’
According to the report, Mizobe is not confident that the studio can reproduce the success of Palworld in another game, but it seems they are dedicated to creating mainly multiplayer games.
‘Games are most enjoyable when played with friends,’ Mizobe added. ‘A game without a multiplayer mode just doesn’t feel right in the era we live today.’
Palworld might gain new popularity if it comes to other platforms but, as it’s still in early access, it’s unclear when that could realistically happen.
The small team may have a lot on its plate already, after outlining a plan for Palworld earlier this year, which included promises of a PvP mode, crossplay, and other improvements which have yet to materialise.
