Agilio Macabasco
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4 Min read If you’re a PlayStation or Nintendo Switch gamer who’s hoping Palworld comes to your console, you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, we’ll cover the latest news and developments regarding Palworld’s potential release for each.
We’ll make sure to keep the status as up-to-date as possible so be sure to check back.
Palworld was released in early access on January 19th on both Steam and Xbox Game Pass.
There was also a preview event where streamers were able to play it early to their audiences starting January 16th.
This means that if you do not have a gaming PC or Xbox, you cannot play Palworld through legitimate means.
As of its launch, Palworld does not crossplay between Steam and Xbox.
However, the good news is that they posted as part of their roadmap that it will eventually be added.
[The Future of Palworld]
We would like to share with you our roadmap for Palworld.
Sales have far exceeded the development team's expectations, and we are currently experiencing many problems due to excessive access congestion, among other challenges.
We will prioritize… pic.twitter.com/UKD2HFRaG4— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) January 24, 2024
The Palworld devs at Pocket Pair have stated that the game is only about 60% done so there are a lot of improvements and updates on the way including PVP.
As of today, the current status of Palworld coming to PlayStation is:
If you only have a PlayStation, you can be optimistic about Palworld eventually being available due to a recent tweet reply by Shuhei Yoshida.
When translated, the community member replied to Yoshida saying “Mr. Yoshida, please support SIE so that the PS5 version can be released as soon as possible!”.
Yoshida then replied with a simple, “yes~”. If you’re unfamiliar, Shuhei Yoshida was the president of PlayStation Studios, formerly known as SIE Worldwide Studios, for over a decade (2008-2019).
He has since become the Head of Independent Developer Initiative at Sony Interactive Entertainment, meaning the indie branch of the company.
So with someone at such an impactful position at Sony, especially for indie games when Palworld is itself an indie game, it’s not so much a matter of if but of when for Palworld coming to PlayStation.
As of today, the current status of Palworld coming to Nintendo Switch is:
So the elephant in the room is that one of Palworld’s main draws is that the designs of the pals are basically as close to Pokemon as you can get.
Some people in the community think Nintendo/Game Freak will sue Pocket Pair, however, this is unlikely because Palworld was first announced back in 2021.
In general, Nintendo is very protective of its IP, so if there were actual grounds for suing Pocket Pair, they likely would have done so before the game’s release.
As evidence of this, we have seen Nintendo quickly shutdown a Palworld mod that swapped out the pals for Pokemon
This makes it clear that the Nintendo company has been watching Palworld closely.
So why isn’t Palworld on the Nintendo Switch? There are a few possibilities.
Have you ever noticed how Nintendo rarely has its IP overlap?
Mario focuses on platformers, Zelda on action-adventure, Splatoon as its “shooter”, and so on.
Although there are some exceptions, they are usually clearly defined within genres.
If you’ve ever wondered why there hasn’t been a new F-Zero, it’s likely because of Mario Kart’s success.
According to retired F-Zero artist and Nintendo employee, Takaya Imamura, “I think it’s because Mario Kart is Nintendo’s most popular racing game, and a new F-Zero would cost a fortune”.
With Palworld’s record-breaking success, it could represent a threat to Pokemon’s long-time dominance as the Nintendo monster catcher by splitting its audience.
Historically, Nintendo has favored having consoles that are more affordable in exchange for having less technical power.
With Palworld being primarily made for modern PCs, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Nintendo Switch literally couldn’t handle running it.
After all, the Nintendo Switch was first released back in 2017. Here’s a side-by-side comparison by dew4h of Pokemon Arceus (the open world Pokemon title) vs Palworld:
You can immediately see how dated Arceus looks. I personally love the Nintendo Switch, it has a ton of upsides like its portability but it’s hard to deny that it’s a glaring weakness.
If the impending Nintendo Switch 2 is powerful enough, it would significantly increase the chances of Palworld being ported to the console.
A possibility that isn’t the most intriguing but perhaps the most realistic is that Nintendo may still be planning out its best course of action.
They are usually the slowest to jump onto current trends in the gaming industry and usually beat to their own drum.
Leading up to its release, no one expected that Palworld would be such a big hit let alone a massive record-breaker.
So there’s a good shot that Nintendo is still simply weighing their options,
Thanks for reading our dive into whether or not Palworld will be coming to Playstation or Nintendo Switch!
We’re monitoring the situations for both consoles and will be sure to update this article ASAP with any news.
See you next time, and hang in there if you haven’t been able to play Palworld yet.
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