Palworld is “not changing business model” or switching to “free-to-play or games-as-a-service”

Palworld developer Pocketpair says it is “not changing [Palworld’s] business model”, assuring players it will “remain buy-to-play and not free-to-play or games-as-a-service”.

The company was forced to clarify its position after a recently-published interview led some players to believe the team was considering adopting a live service model.

“We are not changing our game’s business model, it will remain buy-to-play and not f2p or GaaS,” the company said in a statement posted to X/Twitter.

“Recently, an article was published in which we discussed the possible future direction of Palworld and ideas for continuing the game for a long time.”

After stating the interview “was conducted several months ago”, at a time when the team was “discussing internally” Palworld’s future, the team says it ultimately decided “that the F2P/GaaS approach is not suitable for us”.

“Palworld was never designed with that model in mind, and it would require too much work to adapt the game at this point,” the statement continued. “Additionally, we are very aware that this just isn’t what our players want, and we always put our players first.

“We are still considering skins and DLC for Palworld in future as a means to support development, but we will discuss this with you all again as we get closer to that point. For now, our priority remains making Palworld the best game possible.”

Palworld community manager John “Bucky” Buckley recently shared his thoughts on “dead games”, saying he believes it isn’t healthy for the industry to play the same game all the time if it wasn’t created with this sort of playstyle in mind.

“If you are still playing Palworld, we love you. If you’re no longer playing Palworld, we still love you, and we hope you’ll come back for round two when you’re ready,” he wrote at the time.