Pocketpair, the creators of Palworld and Craftopia have just made a surprise announcement. It's launching its own publishing company, Pocketpair Publishing, and even more suprising, the first project is a horror game.
In the post made today Pocketpair state "Our goal is to provide comprehensive support for game development through funding and publishing for indie developers and studios."
Pocketpair Publishing want to find fun games, and make those fun games a reality.
Here's the full mission statement from the newly launched Pocketpair Publishing website, it's simple and direct.
"Making games is fun and we want to help you make games too!
We understand the challenges of creating your dream game.
At Pocketpair, we’ve been fortunate to find success. Now, more than anything, we want to use that success to help other developers achieve theirs.
Making games is hard—especially when you’re going it alone.
That’s why we’ve launched Pocketpair Publishing.
At Pocketpair Publishing, our mission is simple
1. Find fun games.
2. Help make those fun games a reality !
Whether you need funding for your project, a team to brainstorm ideas with, or someone to publish your game, we’re here to support you every step of the way. We believe the future of our industry lies with developers like you, and we’re committed to putting the power back in your hands.
We don’t want to tell you what to do.
We don’t want to take control from you.
We don’t want to change your dream or push you to make a certain type of game.
We want to give you money, and we want to help you make a fun game.
So, are you ready to make your dream game?"
The first game will be a horror title from Surgent Studios
In an even more surprising move, the first game Pocketpair Publishing will help deliver isn't on theme with its normal offerings, there are no cutesy creatures here. It will be a horror project from Surgent Studios. The studio are known for Tales of Kenzera, a side-scrolling Metroidvania. In a statement on X (formally Twitter), founder Abubakar Salim announced the collaboration.
"This is the energy I want to see driving games in 2025—developers lifting each other up, creating together, and pushing the industry forward. Massive love to the Pocketpair team! It’s an incredible honor to be the first partnership announced with @PocketpairPBLSH We’ve been cooking up something fun, and I can’t wait to share it with you all. Stay tuned!"
While specific details about the project haven't been released yet, Salim has shared "Both Surgent and Pocketpair are well-versed in taking risks. We noticed a pattern in the entertainment industry, and Pocketpair has given us the opportunity to make a horror game about it. It will be short and weird, and we think players will be interested in what we have to say.”
The announcement has already generated some excitement, and the choice of a horror game for Pocketpair Publishing's first title is certainly unusual. It does signal that they are open to exploring diverse genres, something that will no doubt attract a wide range of indie developers to apply for support. Speaking of which, if you're a developer you can apply directly to Pocketpair Publishing on this Google form.
Sharing the love with indie developers
So a pretty powerful mission statement and a bold new project announcement today. Pocketpair seems to want to share the spoils of the incredible success of Palworld, which hit over 2 million players at its peak but is still regularly enjoying over 200k concurrent players with the new Feybreak update. The success of Palworld has inspired the team to bring more indie developers into the fray. Commendable indeed while still in the eye of the storm of their ongoing legal battle with Nintendo over accusations of patent infringement. I'm happy to see Palworld and by extension, Pocketpair going from strength to strength, and look forward to seeing the fruits of these new projects.
