Summary
Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe isn’t sure whether the studio should take this year’s surprise hitPalworldfree-to-play.
In an interview withASCII.Jp(translated byAutomaton), Mizobe discussed the challenges of switching a game to free-to-play when you’ve already released it as a paid product, and the uncertainty the prospect is causing within the studio.
“To be honest, things aren’t decided yet,” Mizobe said. “When you think about it from a business perspective, making it a live-service game would expand its lifespan and make it more stable in terms of profitability.”
Palworld wasn’t designed with a live-service model in mind and a switch to this model would likely be accompanied by Palworld becoming free-to-play, possibly causing a problem for the 25 million players who have already paid $29.99 for the game.
“It is common for live-service games to be free-to-play with paid elements such as skins and battle passes, but Palworld is a buy-to-play, so it’s difficult to turn it into a live-service game from the ground up,” Mizobe provided.
Live-Service Would Be A Difficult Transition
Pocketpair understands the difficulty of suddenly switching to a live-service model. He points to Fall Guys and PUBG as two examples of games that were successful in the switch, but it took years for them to get to a point where the transition was as painless as possible.
Palworld is currently available on PC and Xbox Series X/S, but a Tokyo Games Show spreadsheet listed a PS5 version of Palworld, possibly hinting at an upcoming release.
Palworld
WHERE TO PLAY
Palworld has been described as Pokemon with guns and well, it’s hard to argue with that. The game is very similar in nature to the Pokemon formula, tasking you with catching and working with monsters called Pals. There are key differences, though. Palworld is rooted in multiplayer, oh, and, unlike Pokemon, its Pals have guns.
