I'll be heading back to Palworld now that it's getting a new island, additional Pals, and finally some Xbox dedicated servers

What you need to know

• Palworld is the open-world, survival, creature-collecting game that exploded into popularity near the start of the year. 
• During Summer Game Fest 2024, we learned that the Sakurajima Update will bring new Pals, additional subspecies, raids, an arena, a new faction and boss, Xbox dedicated servers, new buildings and levels caps, and more to the game. 
• Palworld Sakurajima Update releases on June 27, 2024. 

During Summer Game Fest 2024, we learned that several new features and Pals will be coming to Palworld with the Sakurajima Update. Honestly, seeing all of these new game aspects is making me itch to jump back into the creature-collecting survival game. 

To fit all of the new content, there is a new island for players to explore — A brief clip showed gigantic mushrooms growing on a marshy location with a frog-like Pal croaking on a dock showcased this new area. We also got to see beautiful Sakura trees with pink cherry blossoms near forested paths. It looks absolutely gorgeous. 

Palworld | Sakurajima Update Trailer | Palnews | Pocketpair | Summer Game Fest 2024 - YouTube

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Here's everything that was listed for the Palworld Sakurajima Update:

• New Island: We were shown sakura trees in full cherry blossom bloom and a beautiful pagoda in a forested location as well as enormous mushrooms in a marshy area.
• New Pals: No names were shown, but we did see some sort of green frog, Chinese guardian lion dragons, purple-fire ghost, sentient treasure chests, a two-legged shark-like Pal with claws, an armored knight, a creature with a crescent moon on its forehead, and a massive burly creature with rocky arms. 
• New subspecies: We saw slightly different versions of Quivern, Wixen, Chillet, and more.
• Xbox dedicated servers: This should hopefully help with performance on Xbox. 
• Arena: This location looked somewhat like a circular colosseum where multiple Pals stood around on the arena floor. It's currently unknown how arena battles work. 
• New buildings and level cap: It looks like there are now glass walls and potentially a new house structure. We don't know for sure how high the new level cap goes.
• New raid: The aforementioned burly creature with rocky arms was shown as the new raid. My guess is it will be a rather challenging monster, suited for late game, but we'll see if that's the case. 
• Stronghold - Oil Rig: This new location features extremely tall cranes on a concrete structure. 
• New faction and boss: The new boss is a woman in a black dress accompanied by a Pal that has a crescent moon attached to its head. 

All of this is obviously very exciting for existing Palworld players. However, the fact that Xbox dedicated servers are finally getting added is especially exciting for team green fans. This should hopefully help increase performance for Xbox players.

For those unfamiliar with this game, let me give a little background. Palworld was the biggest third-party Xbox Game Pass game launch ever, with over 7 million players within the first week and a half of the game's release. It combines the monster-collecting aspect of Pokémon with multiplayer survival mechanics similar to Ark: Survival Evolved. That all culminates in one of the best games for grownup Pokémon fans to play with friends. 

This is an exciting week filled with several different live streams from various gaming companies. You can keep up with more gaming news at our Summer Game Fest 2024 live blog run by Jez Corden.