‘Palworld’ Could Become The Next No Man’s Sky If It Stays On Track

Palworld

Pocketpair

Palworld has released its 1.0 update, and with it, the game has amassed an astonishing number of players, nearly a million concurrents on Steam, to say nothing of its PS5 and Xbox Game Pass figures. It’s a reduction from Palworld’s 2.1 million Steam debut, where the game went beyond viral, but comparing current numbers to it being one of the most-played Steam games of all time is a little unfair. And its current figures remain out of this world.

What it seems like is that Palworld will not follow the path of Pokémon with periodic new releases. Rather, it will stay the course with its current model, one that echoes another hit, No Man’s Sky.

Usually when we reference No Man’s Sky in relation to other games, we’re talking about a game that started off very badly, either missing features or breaking promises and becoming a “cautionary tale.” That, however, happens before a large-scale turnaround, where an enormous amount of hard work, a decade now for No Man’s Sky, turns it into something truly great.

That’s not what I’m saying here. Palworld did not start off poorly at all. It has no need for some “turnaround” like that. Rather, I’m talking about how the game operates and releases content.

Palworld has very publicly distanced itself from the idea that it’s a live service game despite being constantly maintained and added to. No seasons, no microtransactions, etc. Rather, it’s doing what No Man’s Sky did, charging an up-front cost, in this case $30, and over time, adding free updates to dramatically expand the world, adding both new locations and characters (in this case, creatures) and features that fans want to see.

No Man’s Sky has done this to an almost absurd degree, adding so much content and so many features over time it has practically transcended genres (there too, you can now capture creatures). I don’t think Palworld will go that far, but frequent, free updates encouraging the purchase of the original game, supporting a very, very small team, is the same pathway. Palworld has already been doing this for 2.5 years, so what’s another 7.5?

The potential is here. Palworld is intensely addicting and has built itself out dramatically past what it was at launch. And what it was at launch was already good. In terms of the type of game this is, a central, expanding map that’s perhaps more reminiscent of something like Genshin Impact, albeit that is a free-to-play game with an enormous amount of storefront and gacha monetization, something Palworld has totally fled from. If they keep all this up, including this content model, the game is going to have a very long life indeed.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.