Early Access: Palworld | 1.0 Release for 2026

[Mr EliteL]

Yeesh they went for the flying mechanic as well? Man that sucks, like you said other games have done that too.

Kinda curious whether the changes have affected the number of players actively playing, I assume the player base has dropped naturally overtime but maybe a bit more drastically than it would without Pokémon interfering.

[Moonface]

I wouldn't be surprised if the changes just make people choose to play this game more because of being reminded about it from the Nintendo lawsuit stuff coming up in the news cycle on an almost monthly basis, and then I'm sure there's people who will be motivated to play the game not just because they enjoy it but also out of spite to Nintendo and to show support to this game more.

Speaking of the news cycle, not that it involves Nintendo this time but I did not expect to see this game doing a collaboration with Terraria for their next update launching this summer: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/...5533786079

[Moonface]

Palworld | 1.0 Release, Pocketpair and The Future
Palworld will finally be leaving Early Access and officially releasing with Version 1.0 in 2026! A video announced the news, along with plans for the game for the rest of 2025 and beyond.

• Although the release of Version 1.0 will add new content, there is also a lot of cleanup that needs to be done.
  
• The plan is to spend the remainder of 2025 working on the cleanup, which means things will be quieter from the developers for the rest of the year.
  
• It also means the Winter update will be smaller than Feybreak was.
  
• A truly massive amount of content is planned for the 1.0 update. Sneak peaks at some of this content will be coming in the future.
  

[queenzelda]

Huh, maybe I should start a new Palworld playthrough since it's been forever since I last played it. I can also check on my og file to see what's changed too. So, there are options.

[Moonface]

Nintendo are still trying to find anything that can stick for their patent infringement case against this game, and I guess it's starting to wear a little thin on Japan's Patent Office. It's a fun read through just to see how blunt the JPO was to Nintendo trying to object a Pokémon fan game being a factor in their patent rejection.

However, it's no secret Nintendo is highly protective of their IP, but I wonder if they'll take an even harsher stance on any fan games now that one of them has been a factor in rejecting their patent infringement claims against Palworld.

[Maniakkid25]

I actually posted on this exact topic a few days ago, though I didn't post it here because I forgor we had a Palworld topic. I don't play Palworld; I got no horse in this race, but Nintendo can get fucked for launching this lawsuit to begin with. This was a bullshit lawsuit to start with, what with them only making the patent claims in 2021. The fact that Nintendo has effectively gotten away with this is a stain on the civil justice system across the world.

[Moonface]

Ah, I hadn't seen that and I thought it was news that broke at the time I posted it because I was seeing it everywhere that morning. Weird that it took two days for most places to pick it up.

And yeah, I don't play this game either nor probably will but the lawsuit against it is utter bullshit, especially knowing if Palworld hadn't blown up in popularity and just came and went like a lot of other games that have similarities to Pokémon such as Temtem, the lawsuit wouldn't have been filed to begin with.

Not that I would expect the developers to want to do it after all this, but it would be a great popcorn moment to see this game announced for Switch 2. However even if the developers want to Nintendo probably wouldn't let it happen, but if that happened and it got out then it's another bad look for Nintendo. They're actually in a damned either way scenario if the developers decide they want to bring Palworld to Switch 2.