Games

Palworld Dev Talks Growth, Future Plans, and Unexpected Success in China

Published

56 mins ago

September 30, 2024

This time ten months ago, most gamers had never heard of Japanese developer Pocketpair or its debut title Palworld. However, that quickly changed following the game’s early access launch in January, with tens of millions of people diving into the studio’s creature-collecting game during the month or so following its release.

These days, neither Pocketpair nor Palworld needs any kind of introduction, as evidenced by the swarms of people gathered around their Tokyo Game Show booth. It was there that Game Rant caught up with Pocketpair’s Global Community Manager John “Bucky” Buckley to discuss the company’s rapid expansion, Palworld‘s success in China, and the future of the game.

The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The First Few Months Were an Absolute Whirlwind

Table of Contents

Q: It’s been a pretty wild eight months for you guys, right? Please can you tell us about that journey…

Bucky: How long do we have? It’s been an absolute whirlwind. Things were really quiet and relaxed for us last year and then Palworld launched. January, February, March… it’s hard to even remember what really happened. We had such an influx of players, messages, feedback, and bug reports. The media wanted to talk to us. It got a little bit quiet over the summer and then we released our next update and kinda just went again. But we’re trying to deal with it as best we can.

Q: As someone who was there from the beginning, can you talk us through what it was like to suddenly have your company double in size?

Bucky: The office has gotten hotter, there are a lot more computers, and the air con’s not very good. What’s amazing, though, is that the culture of the company hasn’t really changed that much. Obviously, things have gotten a bit stricter. We have to be more careful with stuff. But, generally speaking, we’ve found some amazing people. Our office really is bulging at the seams right now. We’re hoping to move to a bigger place next year, but I think we’ve been very lucky. We‘ve been very fortunate to find such amazing people.

Q: When the game first came out, a lot of people described it as “Pokemon with guns.” Is that the way you saw it?

Bucky: Not really. It was never really our intention to make that kind of game. The idea was always to create a monster-collecting game with automation and survival elements. We see it as being closer to something like Ark, Satisfactory, or Conan Exiles with a bit more of an involved creature part. Y’know? Whereas in Ark, the dinosaurs just kinda do their thing, we try to give it a bit more personality in our game.

A key visual for Palworld, showing a player character riding a Grizzbolt holding a minigun.

Q: Are those the games that inspired you while you were developing Palworld?

Bucky: 100%. They inspired us so much. Ark is one of the best survival games to come out of the last decade. Games like Ark and Rust have created a whole new wave of games, and we wanted to make something like that; something that players could really lose themselves in and build their own kind of environment. Satisfactory’s just one of the slickest games you can play right now, and we love automation in general, so we wanted to add some of those elements too.

Q: Do you think it’s those crafting, survival, and management elements that help set Palworld apart from other creature-collecting games?

Bucky: Definitely. I think a lot of people come into Palworld for the Pals, but then they very quickly realize that isn’t actually what the game’s all about. It’s more about survival and adventure, and the Pals are just kind of there on that journey with you.

Q: It’s still very early days, but do you have any news about PS5 sales?

Bucky: They’re going well. That’s all I can say at the moment.

The Future Looks Bright for Palworld

Q: What can you tell us about the future of Palworld? What can players expect moving forward?

Bucky: We’re going to drop another pretty substantial update later in the year and then next year we’re going to go hard on optimization – fixing all the bugs and getting the servers perfect. We’re still toying around with PvP – it’s hard to crack that one – and then we’re going to work towards the full release of the game.

Q: How much are these updates in line with your original vision for the game and how much are they shaped by player feedback?

Bucky: They’re heavily shaped by player feedback. Palworld was always meant to be a game that we release, we improve for a little while, and then that’s kind of the game’s lifecycle. But then millions and millions of people suddenly started playing it. They want more Pals, more islands, and more bosses, so these updates are very much shaped by what players want.

Q: Your CEO has already ruled out Palworld adopting a free-to-play model, but can we perhaps expect paid DLC somewhere in the future?

Bucky: Right now, we’re thinking about skins and stuff like that. As far as actual DLC or expansions go, that’s very much a post-1.0 conversation. At the moment, there are no plans. Nothing’s in the works, but if the game continues to grow after the full release then I think we will start to consider those kinds of things.

Q: Have there been any thoughts about a sequel?

Bucky: Palworld 2? Palworld’s still like Palworld 0.5 right now. We’re thinking about IP expansion though. We recently announced a collaboration with Sony Music and Aniplex, so we’re looking at ways to expand the IP in ways other than just Palworld 2.

Q: How long do you plan on supporting the first game?

Bucky: As long as people keep playing it, we’ll keep making it. At the moment, we have two games being developed in tandem: Craftopia and Palworld. Craftopia will eventually finish and that will free up resources, but we don’t really know what’s next. We have so many ideas, but where we want to go with it, we’re not really sure right now.

Palworld Has Been a Huge Success in China

Q: You have one of the most impressive booths at TGS this year. How much planning goes into something like this?

Bucky: A lot. Months and months and months. We decided to exhibit at Tokyo Game Show three or four months ago. There’s been a lot of planning. A lot of work. A lot of different booth designs. Getting the cosplayers. Getting the mascots. A lot of work. We actually did quite a large booth in China as kind of a test run for this and then we brought some of those assets over to help out with the construction.

Q: You probably have better figures than I do here, but I think around a third of your PC players are in China. Did you expect that?

Bucky: Not at all. That shocked all of us. Our largest population for Palworld is China. The game absolutely took over China. Our Chinese fans are incredible. We went to two Chinese events this year and the support and love was absolutely amazing. We definitely did not expect it, but we’re happy to enjoy it.

Q: A lot of Japanese games have tried and failed to expand into the Chinese market. Why do you think Palworld has been so successful over there?

Bucky: We would love to know the answer to that. I think it’s just a combination of rich survival elements. Palworld’s a game that if you wanted to, you could sink a lot of time into it, and I think those kinds of games are really popular right now in China. The Chinese market seems to value games with very long lifecycles. Maybe that was it, but we don’t really know.

Q: In terms of your audience share, you mentioned China, Japan, then America. Can you confirm that’s the order?

Bucky: Right now, in terms of active players, yes. China, Japan, and then America.