Pocketpair Says Palworld 1.0 Put Fans Ahead of Early Reviews
Publishing lead John "Bucky" Buckley said the studio withheld press keys to keep 1.0's content secret until launch.
Palworld 1.0 launched in July without advance review keys, and Pocketpair says that was intentional. John “Bucky” Buckley, the studio’s head of publishing and communications, said the team wanted the full release’s content to stay secret until players could experience it themselves.
Responding to a discussion about the game’s small number of critic reviews, Buckley explained in an August 7 post on X that Pocketpair “didn’t send out press keys in advance.” He said the team “weren’t really thinking about critic reception at all” because it wanted the 1.0 content to remain unspoiled until launch.
Pocketpair chose secrecy over pre-release reviews
If Pocketpair had taken the traditional route and prioritized critic reception, Buckley said it probably would have sent review keys about a month before release. Instead, he described Palworld 1.0 as “very much for the fans, not for the industry.”
That meant reviewers who wanted to cover the finished game had to begin after launch. Buckley acknowledged that Palworld demands a lot of time, and said he understood why some media outlets might not want to take on that workload after release.
Palworld had also spent multiple years in early access, making the game familiar to many players before the 1.0 launch. That existing history may have made a smaller number of new reviews less important than it would have been for a brand-new release.
The launch still drew plenty of attention. Palworld briefly took Steam’s top spot for concurrent players after version 1.0 arrived.
Looking ahead, Buckley suggested that Pocketpair could handle media outreach differently for future projects. He mentioned Palfarm as a possible example and said that press and media relations remain an area the studio has not handled much.
What do you think of Pocketpair’s decision to keep Palworld 1.0 under wraps? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Palworld
Developed by PocketPair
Palworld is a multiplayer open-world survival game that combines creature-collecting with crafting, base-building, and combat. Set on the Palpagos Islands, players capture and tame animal-like creatures called Pals, which can be used as mounts, combat partners, or workers at player-built bases. The game incorporates firearms and darker satirical elements into the monster-taming formula.
- Genre Shooter, Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure, Indie
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Mac, Xbox One
- Perspective Third person
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
- Release July 10, 2026
- Publisher PocketPair
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Age Rating
