Palworld will continue its global dominance thanks to a new partnership with PUBG: Battlegrounds publisher Krafton, which hopes to bring the popular survival game to mobile.
Krafton announced the deal on Wednesday, saying that it wouldn’t be just porting the game to mobile. Rather, it will be reinterpreting it for mobile platforms through a licensing agreement. PUBG Studios, a subsidiary of Krafton that is the main team behind PUBG: Battlegrounds, will be handling development.
No other details were announced in the short press release. Palworld developer Pocketpair hasn’t released a public statement at the time of this writing about the deal.
The news comes after a rather hectic month for Pocketpair. Not only did it officially launch Palworld on PlayStation 5, but it became the subject of a Nintendo and The Pokémon Company lawsuit that claims the smaller developer infringed on multiple Nintendo patents. Pocketpair responded to the lawsuit by saying that it’s unaware of what patents are at the center of the complaint.
Palworld began its life as “Pokémon with guns” thanks to a gameplay mechanic that involves catching creatures out in the wild for yourself. Beyond that, Palworld is a unique experience where players then take those creatures — called “Pals” — to help build up their base, craft, and farm. It also supports multiplayer, which mainline Pokémon games rarely do.
The early access game launched on Steam and Xbox Series X/S in January and became a hit very quickly. Pocketpair claimed the game sold 1 million copies in the first eight hours. The developer has since made deals with other companies to expand the Palworld brand; it entered into a partnership with Sony Music Entertainment for merchandise and, presumably, a potential anime adaptation through Sony Music-owned Aniplex U.S.
Krafton has been raising its profile in the video game industry over the past year. It recently acquired Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks after Microsoft shut it down.
