How does Pocketpair spend all that Palworld money? Dev says they can take "risks" even if "we don't know what we're doing," trusting the CEO has "squirreled away enough to keep us alive"

We know that money makes the world go 'round, money can't buy happiness, money doesn't grow on trees, and a million other pithy things that remind us – however cruelly – that money is a hassle that comes with being alive. Well, unless you're Palworld developer Pocketpair, which is so flush with cash, it's allowed to recklessly flush its coffers down the toilet from time to time.

Pocketpair community manager John "Bucky" Buckley told GamesRadar+ at GDC 2025 that Pocketpair is sort of "terrible" at managing its reserves, but that Palworld's "healthy, healthy amount of generation" allows the company to take financial risks.

"We're all kind of very new at this," Bucky said. "We're a very young company. Obviously, a lot of that money goes right back into it, hiring new people and expanding the company to keep up with the demand.

"As far as publishing goes, we didn't set any budgets or anything. We're just gonna kind of keep spending money until we feel we've reached the point where we should just wait and see what happens."

"We're just the kind of company where ideas look really cool," Bucky continued, "and it's not until someone hands you the invoice that you're like, 'Oh, right, of course, this costs a lot.'"

Luckily, Pocketpair's spending problem is to players' benefit. The developer's new publishing arm is already looking like an indie gaming idyll, having just announced a "gorgeous" truck sim with enough haunted New England appeal to steal away several of my weekends.

"I don't want to toot our own horn or anything," Bucky told GamesRadar+, "but we're obviously in a very comfortable position right now where we can afford to be a bit experimental, and we can afford to take risks. Our CEO is an incredibly intelligent guy, and I'm confident that even if we do spend more than we should, he squirreled away enough to keep us alive for a while."

"Minutes after Palworld released," Pocketpair was already getting game pitches from "some really big names" before it even set up its own publisher: "No one has money at the moment."