Palworld is the best and only credible alternative to Pokémon, and it's about to get a huge, important update.
Palworld's unique blend of monster-catching, open-world survival mechanics, base building, and dungoneering captured the imagination of millions of gamers who have grown weary of The Pokémon's Company's low-budget production values. Palworld has served tens of millions of players as of writing, and has caught desperate lawsuits from Nintendo in attempts to stifle its rocketing growth. This latest update is set to help it grow even further.
Palworld allows players to create shared world servers to build bases, hunt big bosses, and capture powerful "Pals," who can then take up work roles inside bases for farming resources and the like.
One big downside of the game was that each supported platform, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC, were siloed into separate player bases. A few friends of mine recently started a new world on their Steam Decks, and I couldn't join in the fun since I play on Xbox Series X|S.
Thankfully, developer Pocketpair is releasing a crossplay update before the end of March 2025, linking players together for the first time.
🚨Palworld's Crossplay Update coming in late March!🚨Multiplayer across all platforms and world transfer for Pals 🚚To celebrate the update, Palworld is 25% off on the PS Store and Steam!Don't miss it 🎁PS Store: https://t.co/REZemF7ymXSteam: https://t.co/mOTG66p6al pic.twitter.com/AYbndvOB6iMarch 12, 2025
Palworld has gone from strength to strength since it launched, enjoying a persistent player base as the small team behind the game scaled up rapidly to meet demand. The recent Palworld Feybreak Island update added a variety of new biomes, new Pals, new bosses, and new gameplay mechanics to keep the game fresh.
Players can now send Pals on expeditions to gather resources, unlock new passives via a research laboratory facility, and challenge themselves in a new hardcore mode with perma-death. Pocketpair has also ramped up the challenge with new Bounty NPCs and Predator Pals that stalk the open world, presenting a more potent challenge in exchange for powerful rare resources for users seeking to build advanced crafting schematics.
Palworld remains one of ID@Xbox's biggest recent success stories, having acquired several months of exclusivity in exchange for marketing and developer support. Although, I'd be surprised if Xbox itself knew just how aggressively viral the game would go when it initially launched. The crossplay update will doubtlessly give players fresh reasons to return to Palworld, now that they can hang out with players across multiple platforms.
Don't expect to see the game on Nintendo Switch any time soon, though ...
