Palworld Free To Play Talks Shut Down, Devs Confirm It "Will Remain Buy-to-Play"

Palworld developer Pocketpair has shut down talks of the game shifting to a Free to Play (F2P) or Games-as-a-Service (GaaS) model, following reports on the developer discussing its future plans for the creature-catcher survival hit title.

Palworld Not Changing to Free-to-Play (F2P) Model

Palworld DLC and Skins Being Considered to Support Development

"Regarding the Future of Palworld TL;DR – We are not changing our game’s business model, it will remain buy-to-play and not f2p or GaaS," the Palworld team announced in a statement on Twitter (X) a few days ago. This statement came following reports on developer Pocketpair discussing the game's future, revealing that it had considered shifting to a live service and F2P model among other prospects.

Pocketpair additionally clarified that they "are still discussing" the "best way forward" for Palword, after a recently published interview with ASCII Japan revealed the devs' ideas on which direction the game could potentially take. "At that time, we were still considering the best way forward for Palworld to create a long-lasting game that continues to grow," further read their statement. "We are still discussing this internally, as it is quite challenging to find the ideal path, but we have already decided that the F2P/GaaS approach is not suitable for us."

Moreover, the studio assured Palworld fans that they have their best interests at heart: "Palworld was never designed with that model in mind, and it would require too much work to adapt the game at this point. Additionally, we are very aware that this just isn't what our players want, and we always put our players first."

The studio said it remains committed to make Palworld "the best game possible," additionally apologizing for any concern that have stemmed from the previous reports of Palworld shifting to a different business model. "We apologize for any concern this may have caused, and we hope this clarifies our position. Thank you for your continued support of Palworld," the studio concluded.

As reported on last week, Palworld CEO Takuro Mizobe discussed their future plans for Palworld in an interview with outlet ASCII Japan, but the studio has since clarified that the interview "was conducted several months ago." Additionally, Mizobe said in the aforementioned interview, "Of course, we will update [Palword] with new content," pledging more new Pals as well as raid bosses at the time. The studio mentioned in their recent statement on Twitter (X) that they "considering skins and DLC for Palworld in future as a means to support development, but we will discuss this with you all again as we get closer to that point."

Over onto other developments regarding the game, a PS5 version of Palworld was reportedly spotted in a list of title announcements set to be part of the upcoming Tokyo Game Show 2024 (TGS 2024) event taking place later this month. As noted by news site Gematsu, the list published by Japan’s Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA) shouldn't be treated as "by any means definitive" of potential announcements.