Palworld Aims to Transcend Gaming Boundaries

Palworld Profits Could Make Pocketpair Go 'Beyond AAA' If They WantedPocketpair Interested in Indie Games and Giving Back to Community

Creature-catch survival game phenomenon Palworld has been extraordinarily successful for its developer, Pocketpair, with revenues skyrocketing considerably that the studio's forthcoming game could potentially transcend "AAA," aka acclaimed, high-budget titles, benchmarks. However, Pocketpair's CEO, Takuro Mizobe, has articulated, once more, a notable absence of enthusiasm for pursuing such aspirations.

In a recent interview with GameSpark, Mizobe divulged that Palworld's sales are in "the tens of billions of yen." To provide context, 10 billion Japanese Yen equates to approximately 68.57 million USD. Notwithstanding the significant profits, he asserted that Pocketpair is not prepared to manage the magnitude of a game that would leverage the entirety of the proceeds from Palworld.

Mizobe disclosed that Palworld was developed utilizing the revenues from Pocketpair's prior titles, Craftopia and Overdungeon. However, this time around with a blockbuster-making budget at the studio's disposal, Mizobe opted to refrain from seizing the opportunity, particularly at an apparently premature juncture in their company's trajectory.

"If we were to develop our next game based on these proceeds, as we have done in the past, not only would the scale go beyond AAA, but we wouldn’t be able to keep up with this in terms of our organization’s maturity, or better put, we aren’t structured for something like that at all," Mizobe stated. He further noted that he does not foresee any game he would like to make with an enormous budget and prefers to pursue projects that are "interesting as indie games."

The studio aims to see how far they can go while maintaining a smaller, "indie" scale. Mizobe pointed out that the global trends for AAA games have made it increasingly difficult to develop a hit title with a large team. Conversely, the indie gaming scene is booming, with "improved game engines and industry conditions" that enable developers to launch globally successful games without a large-scale operation. Pocketpair's growth, according to Mizobe, can be significantly attirbuted to the indie game community, and the company expressed it wishes to give back to this community.

Palworld to Expand to 'Different Mediums'

Earlier this year, Mizobe had also mentioned that Pocketpair is not interested in expanding its team or upgrading to fancier offices, despite money coming in. Instead, they will be focused on diversifying the Palworld IP by venturing into other mediums.

Palworld, still at its early access stages, has already been commended by fans for its engaging gameplay and substantial updates since its launch earlier this year. Recent updates include the hotly-anticipated PvP arena mode and a new island in the Sakurajima major update. Additionally, Pocketpair has recently formed Palworld Entertainment in collaboration with Sony to handle global licensing and merchandising activities associated with Palworld outside of the game.