Pocketpair’s head of publishing opened MS Paint this week and hilariously drew up a graph explaining to fans the way their companies IP is structured. John “Bucky” Buckley explains why in the post: people keep writing to him about Palworld projects his company has nothing to do with.
“If it’s in red, then that is us, and I can help you! If it isn’t in red…well, then it’s actually another company making it, so I can’t help you much!”
It’s a genuinely useful chart but for some may take some time to understand so we decided to lay it all out for you below. If you have a question about a Palworld thing, this is how you work out whose door to knock on.
What Pocketpair actually makes
Red on the chart means Pocketpair builds it. Four things qualify, and two of them are spin-offs nobody has a date for yet.
| Project | What it is |
|---|---|
| Palworld | The flagship open-world survival game |
| Craftopia | Pocketpair’s earlier survival-craft game |
| Palfarm | Palworld farming spin-off, in development |
| Pal♡world! ~More Than Just Pals~ | Palworld dating-sim spin-off, in development |
What Pocketpair licensed out
Green means the IP went to somebody else. This is the section that generates the mail, and it is worth knowing that Pocketpair co-owns one of these companies but not the others.
| Project | Who holds the license | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Palworld OCG | Bushiroad | The official card game |
| Palworld Mobile | Krafton | Mobile version of Palworld |
| Palworld Online | Garena | Licensed mobile MMO |
| Merchandise | Palworld Entertainment | Joint venture with Aniplex and Sony Music Entertainment |
What Pocketpair publishes but does not make
This is the part of the chart people miss, and it catches out a lot of readers. Pink means Pocketpair Publishing funded and released the game while a different studio built it. Eight titles sit here, and none of them are Palworld.
| Game |
|---|
| Dead Take |
| Cassette Boy |
| Normal Fishing |
| Clicky Islands |
| Windrose |
| Vision Quench |
| Never Grave |
| Truckful |
What I make of it
Letting other studios build games on the IP is something I wish more companies would consider doing. Pocketpair is a small studio with plenty already lined up. Palworld just left early access with the 1.0 launch on July 10, the biggest update the game has ever had, and Palfarm is still in development behind it.
Handing the mobile side to Krafton and Garena means none of that gets pushed back. Pocketpair keeps its team on the games it wants to make, two experienced mobile studios take on the work they’re actually built for, and players end up with more ways into the world instead of one team stretched across all of it.
Palworld Online looks like the next big thing coming from the IP, and it should pull in a good chunk of the MMO crowd even without a PC version announced. Between 1.0 landing last month, the trading (original) card game launch, and now this, Palworld has been having quite the summer, and it isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
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