Following its early access launch earlier this year, Palworld has continued to be a game that many players are talking about. At the start, its blend of monster-taming, action, and survival gameplay got plenty of praise, even if it hasn’t been “officially” launched yet.
Since then, the game has gotten various updates, including the big Sakurajima update released back in June. Now, the game has been a major topic again, all while the team has been busy with the game’s PlayStation 5 version which launched just a few days ago.
To go along with the PS5 release, the game also made a big appearance at Tokyo Game Show 2024 with a big booth. At the Palworld booth, we got a chance to interview Bucky, the Global Community Manager at Pocketpair.
In our quick chat with Bucky, he shared his thoughts on how the development of Palworld was progressing, along with some of the biggest challenges that they have faced.
Our interview with Bucky happened during our TGS 2024 Palworld booth visit.
Can you share with us the development team’s reaction to the game’s massive early access launch? Did you expect the game’s launch to be that big?
Bucky: No, we did not expect it to be that big at all. Everyone at Pocketpair knew Palworld was something special, especially towards the end of last year. We saw our numbers rising, rising, rising, but we still didn’t expect the release to be as crazy as it was. It’s very difficult for us to try and balance that hype while keeping up with the game. But you know, we’re doing our best. We’re hiring a lot of people every month. We’re trying to speed up updates. Speed up patches, you know. We’re just trying to keep up with the player demand right now.
What feedback did you get from players in the past months that you are currently focusing on?
Bucky: A lot of the feedback we got from players is that in the early access launch, the early and the mid-game are fun and fleshed out. But then a lot of players have a lot of difficulty with the end game of current power load, they really struggle with the grinding and the breeding mechanics and stuff. So, we’re trying to flesh out the end game more. We recently added Hard Mode bosses to give players more challenges to do, and we’re adding more raids and stuff like that. PvP is something a lot of players ask about, and it’s something that we’re trying to find the best way to do.
Can you talk us through the process of releasing the game for PlayStation?
Bucky: We want as many players in the world to enjoy Palworld, and PlayStation has always been on our minds since day one. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it very early, just because we’re a small team, but we’ve been working with Sony for quite a few months now to get this going. They’ve been incredibly supportive, and we’re excited that everyone can finally get a chance to play it. And it seems at the moment, the reception has been really, really good. It’s only been like, I think, a couple of days or something, but already we’ve had an amazing reception for our PlayStation fans.
What are the biggest challenges that you have faced on the development side?
Bucky: From the development side of things, it’s hard to keep up with the demand, especially coming towards launch as a company. It means many of us do a lot of different jobs. There’s a lot of hat swapping going on at Pocketpair while we’re trying to figure things out. Palworld launched with about 30 people in the company. Now we’re just over 70. We are expanding as fast as we can, but obviously, it is difficult, and I think something that a lot of people don’t maybe realize is we can hire new people, but it will take weeks to onboard them, on the engine, on the development, and what we’re gonna do next. We’re trying our best to keep up with things, but obviously, there are some growing pains involved.
You’ve talked a lot about player’s demands for the game, but on the flip side, Palworld has gotten plenty of love from fans as well. What do you think of all the love the game has gotten since the early access launch?
Bucky: I mean, we were overwhelmed. The support for Palworld is incredible. I mean, it’s something none of us expected, and you know, this year has been a real whirlwind for all of us. We’ve flown around the world to all these events, and it’s really touching to meet people who are so in love with the game. Of course, players have a lot of demands. They want new pals, you know, every day, basically, new zones, new islands, new weapons, new pal types. But you we’re just trying our best to keep up.
What are you most proud of about the game so far?
Bucky: I think I’m most proud of what we’ve been able to do, considering, for most of us, this is our first time. Pocketpair the company has been making games for almost a decade, but a lot of the Palworld team is very new to this, especially on the business side and the marketing side. And I’m just really proud, from an advanced point of view, that we’re able to pull off things like this with just, you know, hope. Hope and good wishes.
Palworld is available now on early access via PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5.