Palworld was the first and (so far) biggest surprise hit of 2024. Launched in early access on PC and Xbox on January 19, the game developed by Pocketpair went on to break several sales records; in just a month, Palworld had sold 15 million copies on Steam alone and also had around 10 million players on Xbox (though the game is included with the Game Pass subscription there).
However, these incredible figures suddenly slowed down. Nowadays, the game is played by around 25-30K concurrent players on Steam, down from the massive peak of 2.1 million players registered at launch. Pocketpair is working on improving the game to renew the interest of players, as well as potentially releasing it on other platforms.
In an interview with the Japanese website ASCII, Pocketpair CEO and producer Takuro Mizobe revealed that the team currently faces the difficult choice of switching to a free-to-play model, which he believes is the only way to make a true live service game.
We will of course add so-called general content. For example, we will create a new map and introduce new Pals there. Also, for example, we will introduce raid bosses so that everyone can fight, but for the future of Palworld, there are two options that are really important directions. That is, to evolve it into a package game type or to evolve it into a Live Ops game. From the perspective of business opportunities, originally making it a live game as a managed game would stabilize profitability and extend the life of the game itself, but Palworld was not designed from the beginning with that in mind, so there are many difficulties in making it a live game.
And the most important thing is whether the players want it or not. As a prelude to a live game, it needs to be a F2P (free-to-play) game. It is common for managed games to make it a F2P game and then add paid elements such as skins and battle passes, but Palworld is a one-time purchase game, so it is difficult to turn it into a live game from the ground up. At the moment, we are exploring how to attract more players while still cherishing existing players. There are several successful examples of games that have shifted from pay-to-download games to F2P midway through. In that case, they often give guaranteed items or items worth the amount of money. “PUBG” and “Fall Guys” are successful examples, but both took several years to shift.
What do you think? Should Pocketpair turn Palworld into a free-to-play game to increase revenue and improve its ability to deliver new content for players?
