Palworld is getting a huge expansion in December

Palworld exploded out of the gate last January, which makes Pocketpair so much money I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. The game also blew up after hitting Xbox Game Pass, becoming the most played third-party title in the service’s history. Although there was an inevitable slowdown, Pocketpair continued to make progress, not only developing the game, but also turning it into a multimedia property through a Sony Entertainment partnership – eventually bringing the game to PS5 in September.

The tricky part: Nintendo eventually took action against the game, which even in its pre-release form was called “Pokémon with guns.” A lawsuit Nintendo filed against Pocketpair in September cited patent law in its case alleging infringement, as Pocketpair later revealed, regarding Palworld‘s Poké Ball-like catching mechanisms. Pocketpair doesn’t seem to be taking any chances: earlier this month, the studio released an update that did away with the mechanic entirely.

The new update promises to add new friends, weapons, fresh architecture styles for city building, and a few new abilities to make up for the lack of Faux-ké Balls. The biggest addition will be the new island, which the studio says will be “approximately six times” the size of Sakurajima, the previous island added to the game in a release. There, players can catch friends and challenge a new faction leader in a boss battle. So if you like muscular bipedal creatures like the anthropomorphic lion shown in the trailer, you won’t have to wait long to befriend them.