When it was released, Palworld quickly blew up, reaching more than 25 million players in its first month. Now, with its first major update on the way, a new deal between developer Pocketpair, Sony Music, and Aniplex, aims to “expand and develop new businesses associated with the hit game”.
The new deal was announced in a press release today, establishing a new venture known as Palworld Entertainment Inc. So what does a deal to expand upon the survival, base building, monster catching, training, and more mean? While the announcement doesn't go into the full range of what this means, it does mention “global licensing and merchandising”, outside of the game, so we can probably start to expect things like Palworld t-shirts or plushies.
That’s not surprising, given the humor in the game and the wide range of creatures, although those creatures and their development have garnered some controversy and accusations of potential copyright issues. So, having a major deal backing Palworld’s devs as they try their hand at monetizing their hit is likely to strengthen their foundation.
The first merchandise is already on the way and will be revealed this Friday at the Bilibili World 2024 show in Shanghai, China. Eventually, after the reveal, Aniplex will start taking preorders and handle e-commerce sales.
The deal also aims to develop and expand the reach of the IP, which could point to other ways of making Palworld even bigger.
