Pocketpair confirms that Palworld will not be a free-to-play game or a live service game: 'We won't change our business model.'

In an interview with ASCII Japan translated into English by Automaton Media CEO Takuro Mizube was asked if it would be a good idea to switch to a live service model.

Mizobe responded that, from a business standpoint, making [Palworld] into a live-service would extend its life and make it more profitable. The game was not originally designed to be a live-service game, so it would present many challenges.

He also spoke about the difficulty in converting a paid-for game to free-to-play, as many successful live-service titles are. This is done without alienating their existing audience. He said that it is common for live service games to be F2P, with paid elements like skins and battle pass, but Palworld is a B2P, so it is difficult to convert it into a Live-Service game from the ground-up.

Mizobe continued to say that while games such as PUBG and Fall Guys were able to make the switch successfully, it wasn't a simple matter in either case. Both took several years to make this shift. "While I understand the live-service business model is good for businesses, it's not easy."

Congratulations on your reading comprehension abilities if you think that this sounds like someone who considered the possibility of changing Palworld into a free-to play service game but decided against it. Some Palworld fans, however, felt the opposite and took to social networks to complain about their beloved game becoming a game-as a service.

The conversation became so heated that Pocketpair felt compelled to respond in a post made on the old Twitter-style bigotry hub. It began by explaining "this interview was conducted a few months ago" and that "we have already determined that the F2P/GaaS is not suitable for our company."

Palworld was also suggested as a way to continue monetizing it, but these are only theoretical suggestions at this stage. "We will continue to consider skins and DLC in the future to support development. We will discuss this again with you as we get closer. Our priority is to make Palworld the best possible game.

Pocketpair has been thinking about ways to build upon the success of Palworld. In the original interview, it was noted that the studio had considered running in-game advertisements, but this was wisely abandoned due to the reaction of PC players. Steam users hate ads, as Mizobe stated.