Cast your minds back to this day two years ago, and you will recall Pocketpair’s creature catching survival game Palworld taking the internet and players by storm.
Soon after its early access debut on 19th January 2024, Palworld became only the second game to pass two million concurrent Steam players, the first being PUBG. And, it wasn’t only Steam where Palworld took off. Palworld’s US player numbers on Xbox also briefly surpassed those of perennial favourite Fortnite that same month.
But, despite this clear popularity, there were plenty out there who would lambast the studio and its viral hit, with many dubbing Palworld ‘Pokémon with guns’. So now, two years down the road, what is the studio’s biggest learning from the last 24 months?
“It’s crazy thinking back to the initial release of Palworld, because it honestly feels like another lifetime ago,” Pocketpair’s head of publishing and communications John ‘Bucky’ Buckley tells me, as he reflects on that day two years ago. “We’ve been so blessed throughout this whole experience, and our fans continue to surprise us with their passion on a daily basis!”
Bucky admits there is “a lot to unpack over the last two years”, however, “by far the most important thing I’ve learned over this time is how important it is to simply be transparent with our players”. The Palworld community manager of course understands this is not “a one-size-fits-all approach”, and he is sure “there are some games out there that perhaps can’t be as open as they’d like”. For Pocketpair, though, the team “found out pretty early on that the more open and communicative we are with our players, the more receptive they’ll be to what we’re trying to achieve”.
Says Bucky: “Palworld is a game made by us, but it’s also made by our players. We take so much feedback from them, and many of the updates over the last two years have been a direct result of what the community has been asking for.”
Bucky admits, though, that even with this success, things haven’t always been easy for Pocketpair. “Palworld is fortunate to enjoy a very large and very active community, but with that also comes a large number of contrarians who take every opportunity to snipe at it. I’m not talking about people who just don’t like Palworld, that’s fair enough, but as with every popular game, there’s a percentage of people who make it their unofficial job to rant and rave about the game as often as they can,” he says.
“Now, naturally, the impact these sorts of people have is basically non-existent, but we’re only human, so at times even we can get swept up in that negativity.”
He adds that “learning to tune out the performative drama and focus on our community” is something he still struggles with to this day, but “I’d like to think I’m getting better at it!”
As for what’s next, Palworld 1.0 is due to be released later this year. “We have a lot of other fun things planned,” Bucky closes. “We’ll keep working hard to grow Palworld into something special that our fans can continue to enjoy for a long time to come!”
You can check out a sneak peek at some of the upcoming Pals in the video below.
As well as Palworld 1.0, Pocketpair also has an official card game coming in collaboration with Bushiroad in the works. This chap is coming on 30th July, and has been designed as a two-player competitive card game.
In the meantime, if you’re playing Palworld, but feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all right now, be sure to check out our guides. Here’s one on Palworld Breeding Combos and how to breed Pals to get you started.
