Palworld recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, and to mark the occasion, developer Pocketpair outlined its plans for the game‘s second year, with a roadmap that includes cooperative cross-play and an “endgame scenario.”
But why add an ‘ending’ now? Could it be because of Nintendo’s imminent legal action against the game? Well, Pocketpair community manager John “Bucky” Buckley tells Eurogamer that this “ending” has actually been “plotted out for quite some time” – and while it’s on the way, it certainly doesn’t mean it’s the one. end” of Mundo pal.
“The World Tree, where the ‘ending’ takes place, has been visible since day one,” Bucky tells me. “Many players suspected their journey would end there, and we’ve been repeatedly asked when the World Tree will be available, so we’re very excited to finally open the area to players!”
Bucky admits that “final” may not be the best way to phrase things, but says he “can’t think of a better one” right now.
“While the World Tree will mark the conclusion of this particular journey, it is by no means the end of Palworld,” he says.
As for what else is coming to Palworld, Bucky promises “exciting things” in the works. “We may have announced the Terraria collaboration a little prematurely,” he admits, “but everyone, including Re-Logic, was so excited that we thought it would be fun to share it early.”
Pocketpair remains “really excited about the direction [its] directed,” Bucky continued, including Pocketpair’s newly announced publishing division “which aims to fund and support developers in creating great games.”
Of course, Palworld’s first year has not been without its challenges.
“To be honest, there were a lot of challenges,” he tells me. “Prior to launch, we started to gain traction online, which was new for us and brought its own difficulties. After launch, we faced server issues, bug reporting issues, countless accusations… It was a lot to handle .
“While those problems have not completely disappeared, they have definitely become more manageable.”
Those accusations mostly had a Pokémon twist. Before the game was released in Early Access last January, many dubbed it ‘Pokémon with Guns’ due to the familiar designs of some Palworld creatures and some game mechanics. Nintendo announced it would sue Pocketpair for infringement of “multiple” patents in September, and it was later confirmed that the lawsuit targets three patents in particular. As part of an update in December, Pocketpair later removed the ability to summon creatures by launching Pokéball-style Pal Spheres.
So what has the team learned in the last 12 months? After all, no one, not even Bucky, expected Palworld to take off as much as it did. As a reminder, Palworld became the first big megahit of 2024, surpassing 2 million concurrent players on Steam last January. It was only the second game to achieve this, the other being PUBG.
“As a company, we’ve learned to structure our processes better,” Bucky tells me. “People often forget that Pocketpair is a fairly small team. The methods we’ve used in our previous games worked well, but Palworld highlighted both our weaknesses and our strengths. This year really brought the team together and made us more effective in our workflows.”
But personally, Bucky now appreciates the “importance of asking for advice and help as early as possible,” adding, “There are so many incredibly knowledgeable people in this industry.”
If you’re playing Palworld, but feeling a little overwhelmed right now, be sure to check out our guides. Here’s one on Palworld Breeding Combos and how to breed friends to get you started.