Palworld Challenges AAA Gaming Standards

Palworld's immense financial success could potentially elevate developer Pocketpair's next project to a level "beyond AAA." However, CEO Takuro Mizobe has outlined a different strategic direction for the studio. Learn more about his perspective.

Palworld’s Revenue Could Enable Pocketpair to Go 'Beyond AAA'

Pocketpair Remains Committed to Indie Games and Community Support

The creature-collecting survival hit Palworld has achieved remarkable success for its developer Pocketpair, generating profits so substantial that the studio's next game could potentially exceed the standards of high-budget "AAA" titles. Despite this, CEO Takuro Mizobe has reiterated the company's distinct lack of interest in pursuing such large-scale projects.

In a recent GameSpark interview, Mizobe revealed that Palworld's sales have reached "tens of billions of yen." For context, 10 billion Japanese Yen equates to roughly $68.57 million USD. Even with these significant earnings, he expressed that Pocketpair is not organizationally prepared to manage a project utilizing Palworld's entire revenue.

Mizobe explained that Palworld was developed using proceeds from Pocketpair's earlier titles, Craftopia and Overdungeon. Now, with a blockbuster-level budget at their disposal, the CEO has decided against immediately pursuing a massive project, citing the company's current stage of development as a key factor.

"If we were to fund our next game entirely from these profits, following our previous model, the project's scope wouldn't just surpass AAA—it would exceed our organizational capacity," Mizobe stated. "We simply aren't structured for that scale." He further emphasized his preference for creating games that "remain compelling as indie titles" over projects requiring enormous budgets.

The studio intends to explore how far it can innovate while maintaining a smaller, indie-oriented structure. Mizobe observed that current trends in AAA game development make it increasingly difficult to achieve hit status with large teams. Meanwhile, the indie scene is flourishing, thanks to "advancements in game engines and industry conditions" that allow smaller teams to create globally successful games. Mizobe credits much of Pocketpair's growth to the indie community and has expressed a desire to contribute back to it.

Palworld Set to Expand into New Mediums

Earlier this year, Mizobe also noted that Pocketpair has no plans to significantly expand its team or upgrade to more luxurious offices despite the influx of revenue. Instead, the focus will be on diversifying the Palworld intellectual property by expanding into other media formats.

Despite being in early access, Palworld has earned praise from fans for its engaging gameplay and substantial post-launch updates. Recent additions include the highly anticipated PvP arena mode and a new island introduced in the Sakurajima major update. Furthermore, Pocketpair has partnered with Sony to establish Palworld Entertainment, a new entity dedicated to managing global licensing and merchandising activities for the brand.