Krafton will bring Palworld to mobile under a newly-announced deal with Pocketpair. The mobile version will be developed by the PUBG Studios team.
In a press release, Krafton announced the deal and its plans for the open-world survival crafting and creature collecting title, saying the company (via Google Translate) “plans to faithfully reinterpret and implement the original’s main fun elements to fit the mobile environment”. It looks like we’ll be able to head out, build houses, farms, catch creatures, put them to work, and reap the benefits on mobile platforms sometime in the future.
The mobile licensing agreement announcement did not mention regional scope, so we’ll have to see if this ever makes it to a global release. Another question is whether the economic model will shift or remain as a buy to play title. Recently, Pocketpair had to respond to discussion over comments made by the company’s CEO on the potential for a business model change to free to play/live service. The company dismissed any change in Palworld’s business model, in its release on PC and consoles, but we’ll have to see how the mobile adaptation will work.
This news comes after Nintendo recently filed suit against Pocketpair in Japan, citing some alleged patent violations. The deal to bring the game to mobile was obviously in the works before that recent lawsuit filing, so the two are unrelated, but there is a chance that any unfavorable finding might affect Palworld projects. Krafton has found itself in similar territory before, as they decided to bring a mobile version of Ironmace’s Dark and Darker to the market while the PC version was hit with since-dismissed copyright claims.
