With the surprise move from the developer behind Palworld to open a new publishing arm of the company proving so popular, one poor dev laments that he’s perhaps a little busier than he originally thought he’d be.
Despite being founded in 2015, it wasn’t until early last year that Pocketpair became somewhat of a household name with the breakout success of Palworld. And with the game proving exceedingly popular, racking up more than 25 million players only a month after launch, the studio has decided to put those funds to good use, opening Pocketpair Publishing to provide funding and publishing support to indie developers.
Understandably, this is a major opportunity for smaller developers, as the publisher’s communications director and publishing manager John Buckley (better known by many as Bucky) found out almost immediately.
Taking to Twitter, he posted two screenshots taken 15 hours after the announcement of Pocketpair Publishing, showing that he had already received 68 emails from prospective developers, as well as a whopping 1577 invitations on LinkedIn. “My inboxes were 0 before then,” he explains, “I think I might have underestimated how much interest there would be.”
We announced Pocketpair Publishing 15 hours ago…My inboxes were 0 before then……I think I might have underestimated how much interest there would be😓 pic.twitter.com/MCal1HuAUgJanuary 24, 2025
Despite the mountain of work on his plate, Bucky is clearly passionate about the project, stating that Pocketpair are there to help devs out where they’re needed, but that how the game comes together is up to them, stating matter-of-factly that is
“If you want help with marketing or something we’ll help out, but otherwise do whatever you want. We’re giving devs the financial freedom to make games they want so they DON’T have to get wrapped up with stinky rule makers and bullies,” he concludes. The first, and so far only game confirmed by Pocketpair Publishing is a title from Abubakar Salim’s Surgent Studios, the developer behind 2024’s Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, though it’s clear there’s much more to come down the line.
If you’re after more of that Palworld experience, check out the best survival games you can play right now.
