Much to the surprise of the gaming world, Palworld ended up being a hit out of nowhere. Launching in early access from on January 19th, the resource management survival adventure game that allows you be aided by adorable critters known as "Pals" saw a player count of over 2.1 million concurrent players and topping the Steam sales charts at 12 million sales. Development team Pocket Pair has been caught off guard by this success.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Pocket Pair CEO Takuro Mizobe spoke about the production costs of Palword. Development finances were about 1 billion yen (roughly $6.7 million dollars), while the game has made 10 billion yen during its release, totaling up to $67 million US dollars. Mizobe states this was something the small studio wasn't prepared for, but has no intention on expansion. 

“We are and will remain a small studio,” Mizobe stated. “I want to make multiple small games. Big-budget triple-A games are not for us.”

This is a rather prudent and viable course of action, even for a game that has achieved the global success that Palworld has seen. Even when netting strong profits, this year alone has seen western studios downsizing their resources and laying off employees. Holdings companies like Embracer Group is rapidly seeing their perceived empire fall, as they have shuttered the doors on veteran studios like Volition and Free Radical. Sony and Microsoft has made major cuts to their work force, following large acquisitions like Bungie and Activision Blizzard, respectively. The secret elixir, which isn't all too much of a secret is understanding your projections and keeping reasonable expectations. 

Palworld may have faced some scrutiny for alleged plagiarism of Game Freak's Pokemon designs, and as of this writing, nothing has come from that on the legal front. Many a studio can learn a lesson from Pocket Pair's approach.   

Palworld is currently available in early access for the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows

SOURCE: Bloomberg