Palworld was originally a "factory game like Satisfactory" until it evolved into an open-world survival crafting hit, lead says

Palworld 1.0 launch trailer screenshot shows several cute Pals eating fruit from a basket.

Palworld 1.0 is finally here, over two years on from its monumental early-access launch, but once upon a time, Pocketpair's creature-collecting survival game could have fallen into a very different genre – albeit still with all the cute Pals that fans have grown to love.

While often compared to Pokemon when it comes to its creature collecting aspects, and the likes of Ark with its survival gameplay, speaking in a recent interview with Game8, head of communications and publishing at Pocketpair John "Bucky" Buckley explains that Palworld was originally supposed to be a factory game like Satisfactory.