Pocketpair says it can afford to give indies better publishing deals thanks to Palworld success

The developer of Palworld, Pocketpair, has said that the success of its pocket monster-themed hit has meant that it can give indie developers better publishing deals than they might otherwise receive.

Speaking to The Games Business, the company’s head of communications and publishing, John Buckley, said that it has struggled to find success in the past, but the critical and commercial acclaim afforded by Palworld means it is able to help smaller studios out. He noted that many indies are used to foregoing large chunks of their revenue to pay back publishers and investors, something that Pocketpair isn’t so concerned about.

Pocketpair launched its publishing arm in January 2025.

“Pocketpair has struggled for many years,” Buckley said. “We’ve shipped games that were moderately successful, which just about funded the next thing. We’re no stranger to suffering, and trying to get by by yourself.

“Shortly after Palworld released, a lot of people reached out to us unsolicited, saying, ‘Hey, I’m working on this game’. And we thought, is there any reason we’d get involved? We don’t have the resources to really act as a publisher. All of our games have basically been self-published, right? So that entire side of the industry is relatively alien to us. And what surprised us the most was the conditions that are normalised now in the indie publishing world. You’re meeting with these four or five-man teams who are looking for what is relatively not a lot of money. And they are very used to just giving up all of their revenue for one year. We just couldn’t believe it. You want to make this thing that you are totally in love with, and the price you have to pay is someone else taking all your money for years and years and years.

“We realised, we’re in a position where we’re not wanting for anything at the moment. We can afford to give indies the money they need and not take these huge revenue share agreements. [We do] much fairer deals that let these developers survive from sale one onwards, rather than from sale 50,000 or whatever.”

Pocketpair is best known for Palworld, which launched in January 2024 and attracted 25 million players within its first month on sale. That’s comprised of 15 million sales on Steam and another 10 million players on Xbox, including the Game Pass subscription service.

Pocketpair was sued by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo in September 2024 due to alleged similarities between Palworld and its own pocket monsters.