In our last article, we covered the launch of the year and detailed the incredible numbers being achieved by Palworld, the title developed by the indie studio PocketPair. As time goes on, its success hasn’t just held steady but continues to grow. Within just five days, it has sold 7,000,000 copies, averaging over 56,000 units per hour. Additionally, it has already become the second game with the highest number of concurrent players in Steam’s history, surpassing 1,800,000 players and trailing only behind PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS.
What Was Palworld’s Development Budget?
Takuro Mizobe, CEO of the company behind Palworld, has published a series of posts sharing details about the game’s development, including its budget. Over the three years of development, the studio faced various challenges, such as changing graphics engines and expanding the development team. Initially composed of just 4 employees, the team grew to 10 and eventually reached 40 members dedicated to the project.
Regarding the budget, Mizobe revealed that they never intended to manage or plan for the game’s costs meticulously, as doing so would have been an extra workload they didn’t want to take on. Instead of careful planning, they decided to bet everything on the game, using all the profits from their previous project, Craftopia, to fund it. Craftopia had raised one billion yen (equivalent to over 6 million euros), and according to Mizobe, by the time Palworld launched, that money had already been exhausted.
What Does The Pokémon Company Think About Palworld?
From day one, Palworld has faced harsh criticism from a portion of the audience due to the striking resemblance of its Pals to Game Freak’s pocket monsters. The situation has worsened, with numerous graphic artists and designers sharing comparisons of certain Pals models with their counterparts, showing that while there are differences, the proportions are often nearly identical.
Although neither Nintendo, Game Freak, nor The Pokémon Company has made any official announcements, the outlet Game File reached out to a former legal counsel of The Pokémon Company to get his opinion. When asked, the former attorney Dan McGowan stated the following:
“This looks like the usual senseless rip-off I would see thousands of times every year when I served as Pokémon’s Head of Legal. I’m simply shocked that it has gotten this far.”
PocketPair CEO Backs His Team Amid Controversy
Amid numerous attacks and accusations directed at the creators of Palworld, the CEO and main figurehead of the company has stepped up to defend his team. First, he denounced the situation, stating that beyond accusations, their designers and artists have received hateful messages and even death threats.
Fulfilling his role as a team leader, he took full responsibility for the materials created by his team. Lastly, he declared that he would personally testify in court if legal proceedings were initiated.
