Palworld cost a lot of money to make and Pocket Pair CEO Takuro Mizobe didn’t want to manage any of it.
In a long post on Note.com, Mizobe went into how much it cost to make Palworld as well as how he managed the company’s budget.
According to Mizobe, Palworld cost ¥1 billion to develop or, roughly $6.75 million in today’s US dollars. That said, he didn’t want to worry about the cost of the game.
“It would be impossible for a decent company to develop a game without managing the budget,” he said. “Pocket Pair is not a decent company.”
Mizobe said he didn’t feel managing a budget was worth the cost in effort. He also said that, at the start, he didn’t want to build a “major game”. Palworld was originally supposed to be built and finished within a year because of not having the desire to work on the same things for years.
“The company Pocket Pair is clearly not suitable for making large titles,” he said, mentioning that, at the time, there were only 10 employees. “I didn’t have that image at all.”
Mizobe ended up creating a team of four at first to start work on the game. The goal, he said, was to “make it quickly, release it immediately, and see how users react.”
Palworld Development Didn’t Go To Plan
Ultimately, the game didn’t get finished and released in a year. In fact, Mizobe says the game was “bad” and nowhere near close to being able to release.
“[I] became clear that in order to realize the game that we had envisioned, there was not enough manpower, money, or development time,” he said.
That’s when he decide it wasn’t worth actually budgeting the game.
“The budget cap starts with a zero balance in your bank account. When it reaches zero, you can borrow money,” he said. “In that case, do you need to manage your budget?”
Mizobe said that they would borrow money and kept working on the game, hiring people and building out what they wanted Palworld to be no matter the cost.
In the three years since the decision, 40 more people have been hired to work on Palworld while the studio outsourced even more help.
“[I]t’s still barely ready to go into Early Access, and it’s far from truly complete,” Mizobe says. “For the time being, it is in a state where it can be put out into the world.”
The game has been out in early access since January 18, and has surpassed 5 million in sales. The game has also become the second-most-played game in Steam history. It hasn’t been without controversy, however, as it has received accusations from many online about plagiarizing Pokemon for the designs of its Pals.
An interesting read.
As someone who enjoys playing this game i do have wonders about the studio…
Currently this dev/publisher has 3 games in early access and a 4th game is set to come out (presumably in early access) in Q1 2024.
It gives an impression of 500 projects yet finishing none.
All they have finished so far is a small game called Overdungeon.
While palworld is definitely enjoyable, this makes me apprehensive toward ever seeing a finished product and thus recommending this game to others.
The game is absolutely phenomenal, even if it’s in Early Access! Same goes for Craftopia! The only thing that gets me, is the accusations of “Plagiarism” when it comes to the Pals. I mean yeah, you throw the Pal Sphere and catch it. If they’re not weakened enough, they’ll still break out, even if you DO weaken them, they’ll still break out or even smack the sphere away in defense. So, basically every catch is not guaranteed despite what level sphere you have. On top of that, it’s based on a percentage, as the Pals try to break out, the percentage of capture goes up, making it a huge face-to-screen hope gamble. But, I cannot see any similarities to Pokémon whatsoever! I’m actually amazed at how creative and determined a development team can get when there’s no limitations, no rush, no budget. Increasing everything the game would hold and what could take place in the future. While the leveling system is quite similar to that of Ark Survival Evolved and that of course, had been stated. So unlike “Pokémon”, when you’re basically watching your said “Pokémon” getting their asses handed to them like Christmas dinner. If you see your Pal getting beat down, you’d end up joining the fight!! Where’s Pikachu, where’s Squirtle, none of the Pals actually resemble ANY of the Pokémon I’ve seen.
The death threats and all the insults, are completely unnecessary. There was point where some people I know, started calling them “Pal-mons” or tried to state that had been their true names. Not going to lie, I got a little aggravated. Let the game, be it’s own game, their called “Pals”, just let it be.
Conan Exiles has some similarities to Ark Survival but, Conan Exiles was accepted to be it’s own game and was indeed it’s OWN game. Like come on people, these are just games and they’re all created in their own perfect image. If you take a step back at all the games, you will most definitely find similarities and MANY game titles. Don’t get me started on the Rogue-likes. You know the ones that resemble Dark Souls. Pokémon is directed toward the audience of children primarily.
While of course, adults still play and will continue to do so. But, when it comes to Palworld, it’s main audience is NOT children. If anything it’s most definitely for ADULTS, there’s a good amount of dark humor in there, it ain’t kid-friendly, I’ll tell you that. Merking a “Lamball” with a musket meters away, only to watch it flop over would be heartbreaking to a child but, hilarious to an adult! “Oops, I was aiming at the Mammorest”. If you play the game further, you will find a LOT. I’m telling you, give the game a shot and you will most definitely be hooked. I was skeptical but, it was worth it!! I can’t stop that audience that’s butthurt and will ALWAYS be butthurt no matter what you do. You’ll see where I’m coming from. There are SOME similarities, it’s drowned out by the amount of it’s own creativity, the passion, the love! Which is what most AAA game titles lack nowadays.