About a year ago, the Nintendo-owned Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair for alleged patent infringement – but that hasn't hindered the studio's work on the survival-meets-creature-collector gem, which now has a 1.0 release window.
Global community manager John "Bucky" Buckley reveals as much in a new video on the future of Palworld, explaining: "Things are going to be a little different from here on out, and we want to take this chance to explain why – but don't worry, it's not bad news." In fact, it's pretty great news. Despite the ongoing legal battle with Nintendo, Palworld is nearing its big 1.0 release – a launch that's not all that far off now.
Looking back at the history of the game and the Palworld roadmap thus far, from its first-ever raid to the Tides of Terraria collab, Bucky explains that it's now time for Pocketpair to think about 1.0 – but the long-awaited full release can only come after "a lot of cleanup." As he puts it, "it's no secret that Palworld has a lot of quirks and jank, and we want to take the time to properly address those before releasing the game."
That hasn't held the team back from pinpointing a goal release window, though. "Our goal is to ultimately release Palworld next year in 2026," continues Bucky. "It means that things will be a little quiet from us for the rest of this year. It also means our winter update won't be as big as Feybreak was." This doesn't mean Palworld will lie dormant in the meantime, however – Pocketpair still has "a few surprises planned for our winter update this year."
Bucky says the developers "just want to be transparent about where we're headed and the development of Palworld going forward," which isn't "slowing down or scaling back." In fact, it's apparently "quite the opposite" with 1.0 on the horizon. "Palworld 1.0 will be a major milestone for us," as the community lead describes, "and we have a truly massive amount of content planned for the 1.0 update."
Pocketpair isn't in a hurry to get things out, though. "Rather than rushing it, we believe that laying the right foundation now will lead to a better game in the end." The devs do "plan to share some sneak peeks about Palworld 1.0 in the very near future," nonetheless – and that's not all. "Pocketpair is also working on some other things." Bucky can't share much yet, "but as the company grows, we continue to experiment with other ideas for games."
For now, though, "most of the company's focus is on Palworld," with several smaller teams tinkering away at ideas that hopefully will turn into fun games." Fingers crossed they'll be just as good as Palworld – and that Palworld's own 1.0 launch arrives soon.
