Palworld dev pushes back on Early Access criticisms, points to examples like Baldur's Gate 3 and Satisfactory: "Games only get better when the players are involved"

After revealing that the long-awaited 1.0 release of Palworld is coming next year, Pocketpair global community manager John "Bucky" Buckley has been responding to feedback online – including criticism of the survival game's "Early Access" label.

Responding directly to journalist Chris Scullion, who wrote that he wishes developers "could ditch the 'Early Access' gimmick" as titles like Palworld are popular enough to be perceived as full releases, Bucky explains he doesn't "quite get the correlation between early access and number of players here." The online thread continues, with Bucky describing why Pocketpair decided to launch Palworld into Early Access.

"Palworld is early access because we launched it early with the express purpose of gathering feedback to make the game even better," writes the dev. "We've taken so much of that feedback on board and made many changes to suit what our players want. We're not silly enough to think we know best. Our players are constantly coming up with ideas and suggestions for how to make Palworld more fun, and we'd be insane to ignore that."

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I don’t quite get the correlation between early access and number of players here. Palworld is early access because we launched it early with the express purpose of gathering feedback to make the game even better. We’ve taken so much of that feedback on board and made many… https://t.co/U8EiGU4JgHSeptember 18, 2025

The community lead continues, saying that even though Palworld has reached wide audiences – more than 32 million players now, to be precise – the game is still very much a work in progress and has been since the beginning. "We're obviously incredibly fortunate that Palworld resonated with millions of people from day one, but that doesn't change the fact that Palworld has been a WIP this entire time," as Bucky puts it.

"Maybe it's just more of a Steam culture thing? Should we not have called Satisfactory, BG3, or Enshrouded early access simply because they were popular too? Even though I'm sure all three would say they became better games due to the feedback they received during early access," says the dev, pointing to fellow Early Access successes like Baldur's Gate 3 – a title that similarly racked up millions of players (and various awards, too).

"Millions of players jumping in during early access does not invalidate those efforts," the dev concludes. "Games only get better when the players are involved." He also begs, "Please don’t ignore all the successes" in Early Access – Palworld being just one.

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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.