It’s Uncertain Whether Palworld Will End Up Being A Live Service Model Or Not

There’s a lot of talk about live service games in the video game industry. Most of it more or less consists of how companies want to focus on the model. However, not all developers are made the same and some devs seem to be looking at the idea a bit more closely before just jumping on board. One such company is Pocketpair, the developer of the survival game Palworld.

Recently, in an interview with ASCII.jp (translated by Automaton via Video Games Chronicle), the company’s CEO Takuro Mizobe stated that they hadn’t decided on whether to go with the model or not with Palworld when asked. He noted that it would “extend [the game’s] lifespan and make it more stable in terms of profitability” but that “the game was not initially designed” for it. That means a lot of work would have to be done to make it work.

Another issue he pointed out was that switching to a game as a live service would likely mean going free-to-play, which would likely make those who paid for the game unhappy. While he noted some games successfully make the transition to F2P, he also pointed out that it takes a while and isn’t easy to do.

We'll just have to wait to see what way the team ends up going in the future.