Two and a half years after launching into early access, Palworld has crossed an impressive milestone, with developer Pocketpair stating the title has passed 40 million players. This is right before the title is set to release its 1.0 version, which will be available on July 10th. Palworld has been released through multiple avenues, including that of Xbox Game Pass, so this 40 million number does not strictly mean overall sales of the game. We do know that the title performed very well on Steam, with the title currently seeing 50,000 concurrent players, but the 1.0 release is listed for Game Pass this month as well.
When Palworld first released in January of 2024, we saw the title break both sales and concurrent player counts upon release. In a statement at the time, Pocketpair boss Takuro Mizobe said that the title had generated so much success that the new developer couldn’t handle the massive amounts of profit the game was generating. Shortly following this, the company partnered with Sony, which had yet to see the Palworld release on its platform, to form a new company by the name of Palworld Entertainment to expand the IP. It would release on PS5 shortly after.
Of course, the biggest narrative during the early access period of Palworld has been its legal disputes with Nintendo over the similarities to the Pokémon franchise. Nintendo attempted to patent multiple aspects of their franchise, in which there was some overlap, such as capturing creatures with balls, which did not amount to much. Currently, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are calling for 5 million yen (about $30,000) for each company, plus late damage payments, as well as an injunction against Palworld to block the title’s release. An official judgment is expected later this year.
The head of publishing and communications at Pocketpair, John “Bucky” Buckley, has teased around 27 pages worth of changes that players can expect with the launch of Palworld 1.0. He also stated that while players can continue with their current save, it would be worth it to wipe that save and start clean when the update arrives. He stated:
Players can continue their existing saves if they wish, as we want to respect the time and effort you have put in. However, due to the large number of changes to the game, including overhauls to mechanics and new content, we believe that starting a new character will give you the best experience of Palworld!
Palworld 1.0 will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and PC. Developer Pocketpair has confirmed the game will remain $30 even after the update.
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