Pocket Pair, the studio responsible for this year’s early viral hit, Palworld, has revealed it’s partnering with Sony Group by way of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. and its Aniplex Inc. division, with an eye towards “accelerating the multifaceted development of Palworld and further expanding the IP” both domestically and globally.
This new venture will see the forming of a new company, dubbed Palworld Entertainment, Inc., and will oversee global licensing and merchandising activities around the game.
While initially this does seem to be an initiative focused primarily on merchandising and cross-media promotion of the Palworld IP and not specific to the game itself – which is yet to appear on any Sony-owned platforms, further comments included in a report from Famitsu suggest that game development efforts will eventually benefit from this joint venture as well.
“In addition, starting from SME and Aniplex, we will also work with the Sony Group to promote new developments for Palworld,” the statement reads (machine translation via Google). “Please look forward to the business development of this JV, which will also lead to the ongoing development of the Palworld game by Pocket Pair.”
Just recently, a community manager for Palworld sparked rumours of an impending PlayStation port thanks to a cryptic post, which featured the game’s title surrounded by coloured hearts alluding to the various platforms the game is currently on (and not on):
Though it’s had numerous updates and content additions since launch, we praised the launch version of Palworld as a derivative but strangely-compelling stew of genres and inspirations, with Edward saying, “If you can wrangle a few mates together for some ‘mon-like’ fun, or if you’re just a grizzled old survivalist like I am, I’d absolutely recommend picking up the game on Steam or jumping in via Game Pass to see for yourself if the hype is real. Go on, use HM03 and ride the Palworld wave that’s sweeping the globe.”
You can find Palworld on Steam here or Game Pass here.