Palworld is about to get a whole lot bigger

Open-world crafting hit Palworld is about to get a whole lot bigger. Developer Pocketpair has entered into a partnership with Sony Music Entertainment to expand its reach beyond just the game.

The venture, which was announced Wednesday in a press release, will begin with exclusive merchandise that’ll be available to buy on Sony Music-owned Aniplex’s U.S. and Shanghai websites. The companies will also have a presence at Bilibili World 2024 — a Chinese video game convention that’s running this weekend, July 12 to 14.

The announcement is vague on other plans, but Aniplex is a famed anime maker and video game publisher. It can be traced back to the 1990s, and has been behind some of the biggest anime over the past few decades, including Bleach, Demon Slayer, the Fate series, both Fullmetal Alchemist series, and so many more.

So, we can assume a Palworld anime might be in the cards. And with the game’s similarities to Pokémon (although many of them are surface level), it might be a no-brainer.

Palworld, an open-world survival crafting game, was released in early access in January on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Xbox Game Pass, and became a giant hit. Much of it can be traced back to its “Pokémon, but with guns” marketing, but people latched onto the engaging game loop, which involves catching Pals, bringing them back to your base, and putting them to work on crafting. You can also breed them to make even more Pals — or eat them if you’re feeling a bit mean.

The game getting scooped up in such a big partnership was bound to happen. It brought in millions of players over its first month. On its first day, it had 370,000 concurrent players on Steam and, according to Pocketpair, it had sold 1 million copies. That grew to 8 million over the next few days. At one point, it overtook Counter-Strike, usually at the top of Steam’s most-played charts. In February, the developer announced it had reached over 25 million players across PC and Xbox.

It also received its first major update in June. The Sakurajima Update brought a new island, new Pals, new buildings, a new level cap, and a lot more, which refreshed the game for many players who might’ve dropped off.