Despite Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filing a patent infringement lawsuit in Japan, indie developer Pocketpair continues to capitalize on the runaway success of its creature-collecting survival game. Palworld. Following the game’s surprise launch on PlayStation 5 in September (everywhere except Japan), Pocketpair has struck a deal with Korean publisher Krafton to develop a mobile version.
Krafton announced the deal on Wednesday, saying the new mobile version would be developed by PUBG Studios, the studio behind Battle Royale Smash The battlefields of PlayerUnknown. Krafton did not specify whether that is the case Palworld on mobile it would be a direct port of the PC and console game or something else, but the statement said (via machine translation) that it “intends to faithfully reinterpret and implement the key fun elements of the original to fit into the mobile environment.”
Kraftons PUBG mobile is quite similar to the original PUBGalthough it pioneered the free-to-play business model that has now been retrofitted to the PC and console game. That seems a likely outcome for the mobile version of Palworld (which is also a paid early access game on console and PC). Palworld‘S largest audience is in Chinawhere free mobile gaming predominates.