Making a direct response to the recent rumors of Palworld eventually turning to a Game-as-a-Service (GaaS) model, Pocketpair has once again reinforced that their latest hit release will stay as a buy-to-play title throughout its whole development, and there are no plans of going free-to-play with in-game monetization.
The rumors started following an interview with CEO Takuro Mizobe released by ASCII Japan earlier this week, where he admitted having certain doubts about how to proceed with the game’s future. He mentioned that turning Palworld into a live-service-style game would be beneficial from a business point of view, but the transition wouldn’t be as easy as it sounds, as the game was never made with this intent in mind.
Two days after the declaration was made public (much to fans’ dismay, who were displeased by the possibility), a new announcement was made through the official Palworld social media accounts, such as X (formerly Twitter) and the official Discord server, in which the company stated their official decision not to follow this path, keeping Palworld as a buy-to-play game instead.
According to the declaration, the interview was made much earlier this year. During the following months, after various discussions, they ultimately decided to keep the game in its current state. While they did consider adopting a live-service model at some point, the idea was discarded completely. They are still studying other monetization methods, such as DLCs and in-game skins for players and Pals alike.
It’s worth mentioning that skins are already present in the current game. Players automatically got the Sunglasses Cattiva skin once the Sakurajima update dropped, and more skins were also distributed via Twitch Drops recently. There are currently no other methods of obtaining skins, so adding them as optional items might be one of their solutions for the future.
After the small backslash the company received following the original interview, the reception to their announcement was much warmer. “I love the idea’s of shops that give cosmetic, non-gameplay benefits as a way for studio’s to support ongoing content updates.”, commented a user under their publication.
Another user mentioned how people would be eager to buy these if they had reasonable pricing. “Weapon skins for sure, as well as housing skins but at a reasonable price IMO. Under 10 dollar cosmetics will get communities talking about how pricing is good especially since game isnt f2p.”, they added.
Related: Palworld’s Latest Update Gives It the Endgame It Desperately Needed
Pocketpair once again shows how deeply in touch they are with the gaming community, which has shown a negative attitude toward GaaS games lately. The poor reception to GaaS titles like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Concord (shut down less than a month after its release) could have also played a part in their decision.
Palworld was one of the year’s biggest surprises, selling over 8 million copies in its first week only. The game is still widely played by many players to this day, and has received some substantial updates such as the Sakurajima DLC a few months ago. A Playstation 5 release is also stated to happen soon, and we might get more info about it in the upcoming Tokyo Game Show event.
Palworld is available for PC and Xbox.