Pocket Pair’s founder and CEO, Takuro Mizobe, has revealed that a game without a multiplayer mode “doesn’t feel right” in this day and age.
This information was revealed by Mizobe during an interview with Bloomberg. If you’re interested in Pocket Pair games, you can check out our other articles here.
Takuro Mizobe: Games Without Multiplayer Mode Don’t Feel Right in This Era
Speaking with Bloomberg, Takuro Mizobe said that Palworld was created from the start to be a “conversation starter”. The pals in Palworld are in line with Mizobe’s goal of stirring up online conversations, but they won’t succeed if the game is a mere imitation.
Mizobe then described how his team borrowed ideas from other popular games such as ARK: Survival Evolved, Factorio, and RimWorld. According to Mizobe, the key was to balance elements from all these games and add some deliberate and unique quirks.
In Palworld, the corpses of defeated Pals remain in the game, meaninglessly. Normally, when you kill monsters or enemies, they will disappear or survive to be looted.
My colleagues were against the idea of leaving monster bodies in this game, but I did it anyway because I thought the players would find ways to play and talk about it.
Takuro Mizobe, Founder and CEO of Pocket Pair
Mizobe also revealed an interesting fact: Pals’ unusual art combinations were a happy accident.
According to Mizobe, his team started working on Palworld with anime-style creatures from Unity’s asset store and switched to Unreal Engine, where most of the visual assets are realistic.
Seamlessly blending the two assets is one of the hardest parts of game development, Mizobe added, and the result is a fresh visual fusion that players are not yet accustomed to.
Takuro Mizobe: Pocket Pair Open to Partnership and Acquisition Bids
On the other side of the interview, Mizobe confirmed that Pocket Pair is in talks to bring Palworld to more platforms and would be open to considering partnership or acquisition offers.
However, Mizobe noted that Pocket Pair has not engaged in acquisition talks with Microsoft.
We are and will remain a small studio. I want to make some small games. Big-budget AAA games are not for us.
Takuro Mizobe, Founder and CEO of Pocket Pair
Mizobe later revealed that Palworld cost less than 1 billion yen, or about 6.7 million US dollars, and has reaped billions of yen in profits, which is “too much for a studio of our size to handle”. Pocket Pair currently has 55 employees.
Mizobe is also not sure Pocket Pair can make another game as popular as Palworld, but he is confident in the recipe for success for the current game.
Games are most fun when played with friends. Games without multiplayer modes don’t feel right in the era we live in today.
Takuro Mizobe, Founder and CEO of Pocket Pair