Palworld: 'Pokémon with guns' sells 5m copies in three days

The game Palworld, described as ‘Pokémon with guns,’ has sold 5 million copies in just three days. Its unexpected popularity caused server crashes and revealed “serious bugs” in the game.

The surprising success of Palword described as ‘Pokémon with guns,’ causes server crashes and exposes “serious bugs” in the game.

Palworld, developed by the Japanese company Pocketpair, has experienced rapid success since its Friday launch, leading to occasional server crashes as players struggled to log in. The game has faced criticism for its perceived similarity to Pokémon, but it has garnered attention for being a multiplayer monster-collecting game with open-world survival elements.

In Palworld, players, known as “pal-tamers,” traverse a vast map, engaging in battles with both human foes and creatures called “pals,” which can be captured and enlisted. These creatures can either fight alongside players or contribute to base activities, crafting supplies and items for field use.

At its zenith, Palworld reported nearly 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam, prompting the development team to convene an emergency meeting to address early connection issues. Wesley Yin-Poole, UK News Editor for IGN, noted that while early interest hinted at the game’s popularity, the magnitude of its success over the weekend exceeded expectations. Despite Pocketpair being a relatively small developer with no prior explosively popular titles, Palworld has sold faster than even the fastest-selling PlayStation exclusive, The Last of Us Part Two, which sold four million copies in three days.

Yin-Poole emphasized the immense popularity of the genre, expressing surprise that it took this long for a game like Palworld to emerge, given its astronomical success.

Despite Palworld’s significant sales, it has faced criticism, particularly for its character designs, which some accuse the developer of borrowing from Pokémon. Additionally, reviewers and fans have noted that the gameplay heavily draws inspiration from survival games like Rust and Ark: Survival.

Nevertheless, the game has received praise for its graphics and holds a “very positive” user rating on the Steam digital game store, based on 40,000 reviews.

Wesley acknowledges the unavoidable similarities with Pokémon but doesn’t view it as necessarily problematic from a legal perspective. He highlights that while Palworld features monsters resembling Pokémon, the gameplay itself is distinct. According to him, the game’s strength lies in its adept blending of ideas from various games, creating a compelling combination of concepts.

In summary, Palworld has garnered mixed reviews, with critiques about character designs and gameplay similarities, but also recognition for its graphics and the innovative amalgamation of different gaming concepts.

On Monday morning, Palworld’s developers disclosed that their support team had received 50,000 inquiries and acknowledged the presence of significant bugs in the game. The game, currently in “early access,” provides fans with early access to play, allowing companies to raise funds for further development before the final product is released. However, this early version may lead to players encountering bugs, crashes, and other issues. Pocketpair assured players that information on fixes for these issues would be shared as soon as possible.

Charlotte, known as CharlotteMarieUK on Twitch, shares her experiences while streaming and acknowledges encountering lag and freezing issues while playing with friends.

She speculates that the service might be overwhelmed currently but expresses optimism about improvements in the future. Despite these challenges, Charlotte remains enthusiastic and hooked on the game.

According to her, the game’s popularity is soaring, and she, like many others, finds herself drawn to it constantly. Charlotte eagerly anticipates the developments and enhancements the game might undergo in the future, excited to see what lies ahead.