The Daily Populous Thursday July 11st, 2024 evening edition
Authored by ign.com and submitted by Prudent-Character431

The developer of Palworld has signed a deal with Sony to form a new business called Palworld Entertainment to capitalize on the breakout success of the video game by expanding the IP.

Japan-based Pocketpair announced a joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment in Japan and Aniplex to establish Palworld Entertainment “for the purpose of accelerating the multifaceted global development of Palworld and its further expansion.”

This is not a publishing deal for Palworld the video game, or an acquisition by Sony, rather an attempt to make the most of the game’s huge popularity with non-video game products, such as merchandise and music. The newly formed business, headed up by Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe, is responsible for global licensing and merchandising activities associated with Palworld.

Palworld, dubbed ‘Pokémon with guns’, is a survival and crafting game that enjoyed record-breaking success after it launched in early access form across PC and Xbox in January.

The player count exceeded 25 million in a month, with Palworld becoming the biggest third-party Game Pass launch of all time and an incredible 15 million copies sold on Steam alone.

In March, Mizobe confirmed Palworld cost less than ¥1 billion ($6.7 million) to make, and had made tens of billions of yen in profit. For context, ¥10 billion is around $67.2 million. Mizobe admitted the profits were “too big for a studio with our size to handle.”

Palworld vs. Pokémon Comparison 38 Images

Palworld is one of the biggest game launches of all time, but it is also one of the most controversial. Pocketpair has said its staff received death threats amid the Pokémon "rip-off" claims , which it has denied.

Soon after Palworld’s launch Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod , then The Pokemon Company issued a statement , saying: "We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon."

At the time, IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue . Pocketpair recently insisted it has yet to hear anything from either Nintendo or The Pokemon Company.

Pocketpair has also teased Palworld on PlayStation, and after today’s announcement such a release seems closer than ever.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

goodBEan on July 10th, 2024 at 14:26 UTC »

> This is not a publishing deal for Palworld the video game, or an acquisition by Sony, rather an attempt to make the most of the game’s huge popularity with non-video game products

If it werent or this I would be asking about any previous agreements the devs made with Microsoft. So I guess sony will help out with movies, tv shows, and other stuff. The title of this thread is a bit of clickbait.

Thumper-Comet on July 10th, 2024 at 13:09 UTC »

This could be Sony's Pokemon. If they work with the devs to deliver the kind of Pokemon games that people want but Nintendo refuses to make, this could be a goldmine. Imagine they make a full Palworld RPG.

KingVape on July 10th, 2024 at 12:53 UTC »

Didn’t see this coming, but good for the Palworld devs for being able to keep it going. I really enjoyed the game and I’ve been meaning to go back to it now that they’ve added more stuff