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After Palworld became the hottest monster-tamer outside of you know what, the developers would have been "fools" to not try to capitalize on its success with spin-off games and multimedia projects. At least, according to Pocketpair Publishing head and communications lead John 'Bucky' Buckley.
Pocketpair's hit has come a long way since being dubbed by fans as the Pokemon-with-guns game. The survival sandbox broke Steam and Xbox Game Pass records within days of its early access launch, sold millions of copies, and is now well on its way to becoming full-fat franchise.
Palworld 1.0 launches on July 10, followed by a multiplayer farming sim Palfarm and a very real, very cursed dating sim called Palworld ~ More Than Just Pals sometime after. But Pocketpair's ambitions extend beyond video games – an official trading card game comes next month, and Sony's Aniplex is helping the studio expand with other multimedia projects. (Hello, anime?)
Turning Palworld into a franchise wasn't the goal from the get-go, though. Speaking to GamesIndustry in a new interview, Buckley says the team "always intended" to support Palworld for a while, of course, "but the idea that Palworld would become this IP that we would be making spin-offs for, that all came post-launch." After it reached tens of millions of players, that is.
"We had to, though. We'd be fools to put this game aside, wouldn't we? So we should at least try and continue it," he adds. Too right.
As for the main event of Palworld 1.0 itself, the game's full release sounds like a biggie. Developers promise "many many many new Pals," which should occupy all the Pal-lovers and droolers until that dating sim finally comes. But, be warned: Pocketpair recommends you start a fresh save to make sure you don't miss all the newness coming your way because, again, the 1.0 update apparently includes a ton of stuff.
