Palworld

Palworld (パルワールド) is an upcoming action-adventure, survival, and monster-taming game created and published by Japanese developer Pocketpair. The game is set in an open world populated with animal-like creatures called "Pals", which players can battle and capture to use for base building, traversal, and combat. Players may also assign the “Pals” to bases where they will automatically complete tasks for the player. Palworld can be played either solo or online with up to 32 players on one server. It was announced in 2021 and launched through early access for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in January 2024. The game will also be released on macOS later in 2024.

The game's comedic premise, which involves using firearms and equipping Pals with them, has earned it the nickname "Pokémon with guns". Other elements, such as using Pals for food or as manual labor in mines and factories, have also garnered attention. It was generally well received, with praise for its gameplay, content, and satirical premise, but criticism for its reliance on shock humor and use of unoriginal designs and mechanics.

Palworld sold eight million units in its first six days of early access and reached over two million concurrent players on Steam, making it the second-highest played game of all time on the platform. As of February 22, 2024, the game has sold over 15 million units and is one of the best-selling PC games.

Gameplay
In Palworld, players control a customizable avatar from a third-person perspective and explore the open-world Palpagos Islands. Players must manage their hunger level, craft basic tools, gather materials, and build bases that act as fast travel points. Unlocks through a technology tree allow the player to craft and use weapons, structures, and decorations.

The islands are inhabited by over 100 creatures called Pals, which players directly engage in combat with to weaken and then capture using "Pal Spheres". Pals can also be bought on the black market through non-player characters or traded with other players. After obtaining Pals, they can be summoned to battle or stationed at bases to assist with tasks such as scavenging, crafting, and cooking depending on their type. Each Pal has a Partner Skill, allowing further utility by using them as weapons or mounts.

The game's bosses include various factions, such as the Rayne Syndicate, the Free Pal Alliance liberation movement, the Brothers of the Eternal Pyre, the Palpagos Islands Defense Force, and the Pal Genetic Research Unit. These factions are led by powerful Pal trainers who reside in towers across the islands and are the game's main boss battles. The factions include human NPCs who occasionally spawn in the world, either patrolling or battling each other, who are hostile to the player and can fight them with weapons. The game features a wanted level system; if the player commits a crime, usually against humans, other human NPCs will become hostile and defense force troopers will spawn to attack them until they are killed or evade their pursuers.

Development
Palworld is being developed and published by Pocketpair, an independent doujin soft company based in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It is their second early access open world survival project, following Craftopia. Like it, it uses gameplay mechanics reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but has added creature-collecting mechanics popularized by the Pokémon franchise. Pocketpair said that Pokémon was not one of their main inspirations. According to CEO Takuro Mizobe, the concept of Palworld is based on Ark: Survival Evolved, which also had monster companions in dinosaurs; the survival mechanics and in-game tasks were inspired by Rust. RimWorld was also cited as a major inspiration for the game.

The game uses more original assets than Craftopia, which proved to be challenging for the team. Early in development, it was decided to move Palworld from Unity, which powered Pocketpair's earlier projects, to Unreal Engine 4, as they decided it was more suitable for heavier open-world games. It was first planned for release in 2022, but the deadline was extended to August 2023 as the scope of the project grew and the company hired more staff, and then once again to support dedicated servers on launch. When early access began, the game was estimated to be 60% complete.

In total, the budget exceeded 1 billion yen, and the company hired over 40 additional employees. The game's character animator was hired, despite having no prior industry experience, after Takuro Mizobe reached out to a hobbyist animator on YouTube who had been uploading combat animation videos and Girls' Frontline fan content. The game's director applied during a Twitter recruitment run despite already lining up for a position at NetEase. The main character designer for the Pals was initially rejected during an October 2020 recruitment drive for illustrators, but was hired when she reapplied in February 2021.

Release
The game was revealed on June 5, 2021, detailing key features such as survival, crafting, exploration, exploitation of creatures, and the multiplayer focus. More details were shared over the following years, and the game appeared as part of presentations such as Tokyo Game Show, where Pocketpair announced the release for Xbox consoles in addition to PC, and Summer Game Fest, where they revealed an early access launch window in January 2024.

Palworld was released on January 19, 2024, through Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, and is available with Game Pass from day one. The game is expected to remain in early access for at least 2025. Planned features for future updates include PvP modes, guild raids, and cross-server Pal trading. Pocketpair announced the first major expansion to be released on June 27, 2024, which includes new Pals, a new island called Sakurajima, and other new content. In June 24, 2024 it is teased to be released on PlayStation 5

Pre-release
The game's reveal trailer was met with high engagement on social media and mixed reception, ranging from excitement to disgust. The phrase "Pokémon with guns" was commonly used to refer to the game by both players and journalists. Some viewers thought that the game was fake, a sentiment that surprised the development team. It also received some skepticism due to the unfinished state of the developer's earlier work, Craftopia. The satirical tone of promotional material, with references to labor laws and illegal hunting, sparked interest in the game exploring the dark undertones of the creature-collecting genre.

In Brazil, the game's publicity was boosted due to the pronunciation of pal being similar to pau in Portuguese. Pau can mean 'wood' but is also sexual slang for penis. Both players and journalists made various puns when discussing the game and the Pals due to this double meaning.

Early access
Palworld received mostly positive reviews from critics. IGN and PC Invasion praised its fun combat and engaging gameplay loop, with the latter noting the large, albeit somewhat barren, environments being brought to life by different Pals. The Escapist described the combat allowing players to fight alongside their Pals against tougher enemies as a high point. PCGamesN called the game "a morbidly compelling descent into creature capitalism", stating that though it had some flaws, such as its insistence on ethically questionable behavior and the unoriginal designs of Pals, its gameplay and the open world made up for it. GameSpot praised the game's mechanics and tone as a "refreshing perspective in a genre so often tripping over itself to present things as joyous and heartfelt", believing it to represent the first time "a creature collector game has owned up to its exploitation-as-gameplay systems."

Conversely, Rock Paper Shotgun and PC Gamer criticized Palworld for relying too heavily on shock humor about animal abuse and sweatshop labor in its gameplay, which PC Gamer derided as "mid-2000s Newgrounds edgelord" and "over-committing to the bit", with Rock Paper Shotgun arguing the gameplay mechanics and presentation of Pals fundamentally misunderstood the meanings and appeal behind Pokémon and the monster-catching genre. It also attracted some criticism for the unoriginal designs of Pals and mechanics lifted from other titles, which VG247 thought undermined a game "worth admiring".

Palworld sold over one million copies in its first eight hours of early access on January 19, 2024, which rose to two million copies within the first 24 hours, three million copies within the first 40 hours, five million copies by day 3, six million by day 4, seven million by day 5, and eight million by day 6. On January 24, 2024, it reached over 2,000,000 concurrent players on Steam, becoming the first game since PUBG: Battlegrounds to achieve this feat. The high player count led to server issues. On January 27, Palworld recorded 2,101,867 concurrent players on Steam. By February 1, the game sold 12 million copies on Steam and had reached 7 million players on Xbox. According to Microsoft, the game was the most-played 3rd party release on Xbox Game Pass, reaching a peak of almost 3 million daily active players on the Xbox platform. As of February 22, 2024, the game sold 15 million copies on Steam and had reached 10 million players on Xbox.

However, by February 11, the game reportedly faced the largest two-week player drop on Steam - down from its peak concurrent player count of 2,101,867 to about 750,000 concurrent players. In response to those reports, Pocketpair community manager Bucky wrote on Twitter "This emerging 'Palworld has lost X% of its player base' discourse is lazy, but it's probably also a good time to step in and reassure those of you capable of reading past a headline that it is fine to take breaks from games." He also wrote "If you are still playing Palworld, we love you. If you're no longer playing Palworld, we still love you, and we hope you'll come back for round two when you're ready."

Pokémon plagiarism allegations
Shortly after release, users on Twitter alleged similarities between the designs of several Pals and Pokémon, with a user claiming to show evidence of plagiarism of game assets. However, the CEO of Pocketpair stated that the character concepts were mostly designed by a single graduate student hired in 2021 following the company's public recruitment run for new illustrators. He also states that the game has cleared legal reviews. On January 24, The Pokémon Company issued a statement indirectly citing the game, writing: "[We] have received many inquiries regarding another company's game released in January 2024... we intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon." Pocketpair's CEO stated that the company has received death threats from users on X.