Pocketpair, currently in litigation with Nintendo, won’t leave early access in 2025, but the game will reach version 1.0 in 2026.

Palworld launched on January 19, 2024, for Xbox Series and PC, and on September 24, 2024, for PlayStation 5. Reaching version 1.0 will be a major milestone. To mark the occasion, the developers are preparing a huge update along with several surprises throughout 2025. Pocketpair expressed its sincere gratitude to fans who continue to support the game, saying this motivates the team to keep improving. The game is currently 25% off on Steam until September 23.

“We have plenty of ideas for where to take Palworld, but we also need to start focusing on version 1.0. Beyond adding content, there are many quirks and glitches we need to address before leaving Early Access. With this in mind, we plan to start cleaning up the game this year. Our goal is to launch in 2026, and we believe taking extra time now will ultimately lead to a better game. What does this mean? It means we’ll be a bit quieter for the rest of the year, and our winter update won’t be as large as February’s. We hope players understand that this extra time is going into improving the game overall. That doesn’t mean no updates—there are still some surprises planned for the winter update,” said Bucky, Pocketpair’s communications director and publishing manager.

Bucky added: “We want to be transparent about where Palworld is heading. Development isn’t slowing down—quite the opposite. Version 1.0 will be a huge milestone, and we have massive amounts of content planned. Instead of rushing, we’re building the right foundation now for a stronger game later. We’re incredibly excited about this and hope our fans are too. We’ll be sharing sneak peeks of 1.0 very soon.”

Now the question is: what’s the big surprise?

Source: Gematsu