It’s hard to imagine that we’re going to get a bigger surprise hit in all of 2024 than Palworld. The survival game launched as an early access title in January, and within a month, it had attracted over 25 million players across all platforms. It’s safe to say that developer Pocketpair has very much put itself on the map- but what does it have planned for the future? For instance, is the independent Japanese studio looking to get acquired?
Touching on the topic of potential acquisitions while speaking with Bloomberg, CEO Takuro Mizobe said that though Pocketpair is “content” to remain independent, it would be “open to consider offers for partnership or acquisition”. Interestingly, however, Mizobe also added that the studio is in no such talks with Microsoft, nor does he plan on making it a publicly traded company.
Regardless of what the future has in store for Pocketpair on that front, Mizobe says the company “will remain a small studio”. The developer has previously said that it’s “overwhelmingly short” of people, but though it’s looking to expand so it can support Palworld, Mizobe says he wants to “make multiple small games.”
“Big-budget triple-A games are not for us,” he says.
That Pocketpair would be an attractive acquisition target for many in the industry would be an understatement, at least as things stand right now. The developer has made tens of billions of yen in profits on Palworld against a budget of just $6.7 million, after all.
Palworld is available as an early access title on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. Pocketpair is “in talks” to bring the game to additional platforms.
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