Palworld has been a hit, no matter how you look at it. The game, one of the first from indie game company Pocketpair, has become one of the most played titles in Steam’s history. What’s more, it’s been successful on consoles and will soon be available to download on your phone.
Palworld’s success. With 2.1 million simultaneous users, it’s the third most played game in PC history. Although the current number of concurrent players has recently decreased to 24,000, the game’s impact remains significant. Initially, it held the second position in popularity on the platform, only being surpassed by Black Myth Wukong. Within the first month of release, Palworld sold 15 million copies on Steam and reached 10 million users on Xbox.
Licensing. In July, Pocketpair announced the creation of Palworld Entertainment in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment and Aniplex. This collaboration aims to expand the Palworld licensing business both domestically and internationally. It seems that the results of this partnership are already starting to show.
Mobile expansion. Pocketpair and Krafton have joined forces to bring Palworld to smartphones. Krafton, known for titles like PUBG: Battlegrounds and PUBG Mobile, shared the following in a statement on its website, according to a Google translation:
“Through this contract, Krafton will expand the Palworld IP to the mobile platform. It plans to faithfully reinterpret and implement the original’s main fun elements to fit the mobile environment. The project will be handled by the development team of ‘PUBG STUDIOS,’ a creative studio under Krafton.”
A frame from Palworld. | Image: Pocketpair
What can you expect? Probably not a mobile port. Krafton mentions it plans to “reinterpret” some elements, so it’s likely that the game will be a multiplayer survival game based on the Palworld universe. We’ll have to wait and see. However, we don’t know until when, given that there’s no release date yet.
Nintendo’s lawsuit. The news comes a few weeks after Nintendo sued Pocketpair for patent infringement. The Japanese company claims that Palworld “infringes multiple patent rights,” but it hasn’t specified which ones. Nintendo’s patents include mechanics used for Poké Balls, such as the action of throwing something to fight, affect, or capture. Palworld uses a similar method, but Pokémon’s publisher hasn’t confirmed if it’s referring to this mechanism or other patents.
In a recent statement, Pocketpair said it “will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement.” It added, “We are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details.”
A frame from Palworld. | Image: Pocketpair
The significance of mobile gaming. In any case, the upcoming Palworld launch on mobile platforms makes perfect sense. Mobile devices are extremely popular for gaming. This is primarily due to the fact that almost everyone owns a smartphone. However, not everyone has a gaming PC or a gaming console. Additionally, it’s easy to see why companies want to establish a presence in the mobile gaming market when you consider how much money it generates.
$89.9 billion. In 2023, mobile games generated a whopping $89.9 billion, accounting for 49% of the total revenue from the video game market. Consoles generated $52.4 billion, making up 52.4% of the market, while PC games brought in $39.6 billion, up 8% from 2022.
The mobile gaming market is highly lucrative, making it a crucial income source for video game developers. Not having a mobile version of a successful game IP means missing out on substantial revenue. For example, Age of Empires Mobile was originally a PC game but has now expanded to mobile platforms. Other franchises, such as Diablo and Call of Duty, have also made successful transitions to mobile, along with popular mobile ports like Genshin Impact and ZZZ.
Image | Pocketpair
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