Palworld will not change to free to play model, dev claims

Palworld developer Pocketpair has claimed that it won’t be making the game free-to-play, or changing the game’s model to games as a service.

Last week, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe speculated about the future of the game.

“When you think about it from a business perspective, making it a live-service game would extend its lifespan and make it more stable in terms of profitability,” Mizobe said (as translated by Automaton).

“However, the game was not initially designed with that approach in mind, so there would be many challenges involved in taking it down the live-service path.”

Now, following some fan backlash, the developer has reassured players that it doesn’t plan to change the game’s model.

“TL;DR – We are not changing our game’s business model, it will remain buy-to-play and not f2p or GaaS,” began the statement on X.

“Recently, an article was published in which we discussed the possible future direction of Palworld and ideas for continuing the game for a long time.

“In fact, this interview was conducted several months ago. At that time, we were still considering the best way forward for Palworld to create a long-lasting game that continues to grow. We are still discussing this internally, as it is quite challenging to find the ideal path, but we have already decided that the F2P/GaaS approach is not suitable for us.”

Released in January via Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, Palworld attracted 25 million players in its first month, according to developer Pocketpair.

Last week, a list of titles set to appear to Tokyo Game Show appeared to include a PS5 version of Palworld.

While the listing could be a mistake, in a message published on X in June, Palworld’s community manager seemingly teased plans for a PS5 version of the game.

The statement continued: “Palworld was never designed with that model in mind, and it would require too much work to adapt the game at this point. Additionally, we are very aware that this just isn’t what our players want, and we always put our players first.

“We are still considering skins and DLC for Palworld in future as a means to support development, but we will discuss this with you all again as we get closer to that point. For now, our priority remains making Palworld the best game possible.

“We apologize for any concern this may have caused, and we hope this clarifies our position.

“Thank you for your continued support of Palworld.”