Palworld dev warns Pocketpair Publishing’s first games won’t be like their breakout hit
The success of Palworld allowed developer Pocketpair to start publishing other studios’ games
The head of Palworld developer Pocketpair’s new publishing arm warns that its first batch of games are nothing like Palworld.
Following the enormous success of Palworld, which was played by more than 32 million players in its first year, developer Pocketpair announced in January that it was launching a publishing division called Pocketpair Publishing.
While the publisher has yet to reveal its first game, it appears the announcement is imminent, with its official X account writing “we should probably announce a game soon” today, followed by an emoji of eyes staring.
The post was followed by another written by Pocketpair’s publishing manager John Buckley, who said he was wary about the reveal in case players are expecting more games like Palworld.
“I’m very nervous to reveal our first batch of games,” Buckley wrote. “Not because I think the reception will be bad (they are all bangers), but because I worry people will just expect more Palworld. Pocketpair Publishing’s goal is to help cool indies get made, so I hope you like our first round of games.”
He then clarified that by “people will just expect more Palworld”, he meant players hoping Pocketpair would only publish games that are like Palworld. “Palworld development is obviously completely unaffected by Pocketpair Publishing,” he noted.
While the publisher is yet to officially announce any of its new games, we do at least know that one of them will be the next project by Tales of Kenzera developer Surgent Studios.
Further reading
Surgent Studios head Abubakar Salim confirmed in January that Pocketpair will be publishing a short horror game, which is set to be released later this year. The new game won’t be set in the Tales of Kenzera universe, and won’t be related to Project Uso, the in-development title that Salim showed to VGC last year.
“Both Surgent and Pocketpair are well-versed in taking risks,” Salim said in January. “We noticed a pattern in the entertainment industry, and Pocketpair has given us the opportunity to make a horror game about it. It will be short and weird, and we think players will be interested in what we have to say.
“We’re still in earnest conversation about further projects set in the Tales of Kenzera universe, but this will be a standalone piece: a mile marker between where we’ve come from and where we’re going.”
