Free-to-play or as a live service? Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe can’t decide which model is right for Palworld.
Palworld’s future is still uncertain
In an interview with ASCII.jp the CEO was asked about the future of Palworld. However, Mizobe has not yet been able to really decide on this.
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“To be honest, things are not decided yet. If you look at it from a business perspective, moving to a live service game would extend the life of the game and make it more stable in terms of profitability,” he says.
“However, the game was not originally developed with this approach in mind, so going the live service route would present many challenges.”
A switch to live service would almost certainly result in a free-to-play model. According to Mizobe, this would be inconvenient as many players have already bought the title for just under 30 euros.
“It’s common for live service games to be free-to-play with paid elements like skins and battle passes, but Palworld is a buy-to-play game, so it’s difficult to convert it into a live from scratch service game.”
PUBG and Fall Guys have successfully mastered this step, Mizobe notes. But even they would have needed years to make this change.
