The record-breaking success of Palworld is causing some issues for developer Pocket Pair.
Just two days after its early access release, the game hit a peak of almost 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam. That places Palworld in an elite club that includes blockbusters like Cyberpunk 2077, PUBG, and Counter-Strike 2, among others.
At the same time, the influx of interest is putting some strain on the unfinished game.
Earlier this morning, Pocket Pair said it had received more than 50,000 support inquiries from players, indicating the amount of problems with the title.
The game currently has “serious bugs” that are preventing players from entering servers, playing multiplayer, and causing them to lose saved data, the Japanese developer explained.
Finding that you’ve had all your gear wiped on a crafting-survival game like Palworld can be soul-crushing news. Fortunately, Pocket Pair is “working on fixing” those major bugs, and has even offered a solution for the lost data issue - you can find it by clicking on the Google Doc link in the tweet below.
[About inquiries]
— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) January 22, 2024
Currently, we have received over 50,000 inquiries.
We sincerely apologize for the delay in response from our support team.
The development team is aware of serious bugs that are occurring, such as being unable to enter servers, unable to play multiplayer,…
Yesterday, as its player count ballooned, the game’s multiplayer mode went down due to “an unusually high load” on the Epic Online Service, according to Pocket Pair. Single player was unaffected by the server outage.
What is Palworld?
Palworld is a mish-mash of several popular games in one seriously addictive package.
Online, players have accused Pocket Pair of plagiarizing Pokémon due to the similarities between the two’s catchable critters. It has also drawn comparisons to popular, open-world survival games like Ark: Survival Evolved, Valheim, and Rust - with a dash of Lego Fortnite on top. Meanwhile, the intro and scenery also recall modern classics like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring, respectively.
The aim of the game is to catch the game’s cute monsters and put them to work building bases and making items, including guns. You can also play against or alongside others in the game’s online multiplayer mode.
Seeing as you can bludgeon Palworld’s fauna to death has led some to label it a parody of monster-collecting games like Pokémon and Digimon. It has also produced some hilarious memes, including this one of a dejected creature known as Depresso.
Alpha Depresso stuck on mining duty is a mood #Palworld pic.twitter.com/7BoCVczYu8
— Seventhson (@xSeventhSonx) January 20, 2024
Alongside its huge simultaneous player count, the game has also sold over 5 million copies in just three days.
Where can you play Palworld?
Palworld is available in early access on PC gaming store Steam and through Xbox Game Pass.
Although it’s not currently available on PS5, Pocket Pair has said that it will consider bringing it to Sony’s console during development.
Whether Nintendo will allow it on Switch after the Pokémon parallels is another matter.
