Palworld’s Marketing Masterclass: 7 Key Takeaways

Palworld is back in the headlines, but for entirely different reasons than when it first launched. As you may have read, Nintendo is suing Palworld’s developer, Pocketpair, for apparently “infringing on patent rights.” 

But before we open that can of worms and its massive implications for indie game developers, I want to cover a more positive side of the story: how to launch an indie game properly.

In classic no-bullshit fashion, here are seven takeaways we can learn from Pocketpair.

How big is Palworld’s world?

First, we need to set the stage of how successful Palworld actually was. In a matter of weeks, Pocketpair’s golden child launched on Steam with over 12 million downloads. Their all-time peak was 2.1 million concurrent players – which currently stands as Valve’s second-highest number ever. 

Source: https://xxboxnews.blob.core.windows.net/prod/sites/2/2024/01/7million_xbox_en-815290f8d5269a4e0ab9.png

This doesn’t even account for Xbox’s numbers. Palworld was offered on Game Pass, which is estimated to have seen a peak of 7 million concurrent players, and 3 million daily players. It’s the 3rd largest 3rd Party Game Pass Launch ever.

Now, let’s dive into how they did it.

1. Good ideas can be a gut feeling

In UA, we often get too obsessive over the numbers. If Palworld just looked at search volume, for example, they wouldn’t have found anything remarkable, let alone find anything that can justify putting their entire company’s budget on the line for it. 

I mean, it’s impossible to talk about Palworld without mentioning Pokemon, right? Just like how closely people compare Pokemon to TemTem, Ni No Kuni, Busnax, Cassette Beasts, etc. So let’s start there.

Source: semrush

Even if you look at Statista’s numbers , sandbox survival or farming games are not even listed at the top.

Source: Statista https://www.statista.com/forecasts/997151/preferred-video-game-genre-in-the-us

Gauging initial demand sometimes comes down to gut feeling. Palworld launched off the back of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, one of the most-screwed up Pokemon games in history. Not even the most hardcore fans could defend the rushed game.

Source: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mjNxFhhxd0o/maxresdefault.jpg

But Pokemon is a $92 billion franchise – largely uncontested for 30 years. It’s only logical that the demand for a more grown-up alternative. Digimon filled this void for a while too – with much darker themes than what you would see in Pokemon.

Source: https://x.com/abeastli/status/1750201234655453506?s=20

2. But big bets are calculated.

Takuro Mizobe, Pocket Pair’s CEO, wrote a public memo saying, “No sane company would start developing a game without a budget. But Pocketpair is not a sane company.”

Before they did ANYTHING, including hiring experienced developers and designers, the 10-person studio spent three months working on their promotional trailer. They needed to gauge whether or not the trailer would elicit a positive response before going all-in.

As mentioned in the PC marketing guide, it’s important to test (and test, and test, and test) the waters before you go all-in. There’s really no point in building in secret. 

Mizobi’s goal was to be agile. To “make it quickly, release it immediately, and see how users react.” And starting with such a small team, they were flexible.  They didn’t know how to create models, passed around a flash drive with important game assets, switched from Unity to Unreal Engine, and made some very critical last-minute hires. These crazy roadblocks would’ve otherwise have caused huge delays for studios with several layers of bureaucracy.

Let’s not forget about one of their older games, Craftopia. Albeit small, Pocket Pair wasn’t completely unknown. They launched Craftopia with 26k players (although there was an incredibly steep dropoff). They already had an existing player base and audience to promote Palworld to.

3. Gameplay> graphics and originality 

An incredible gameplay loop will beat out graphics, bugs, and originality. AverageJonas for example went from Valorant streamer to full-time Palworld streamer because of how much he loved the mechanics. People will always forgive your janky animations or weird little bugs as long as the core mechanics are fucking awesome.

But what constitutes ‘good mechanics?’ A fun gaming loop includes the following elements:

• Introduction: easy to pick up, helpful tutorials that slowly introduces new elements. Palworld’s mechanics were very familiar to those who have played other survival games.
• Core Actions: gameplay loops have a series of repetitive, but meaningful actions. Palworld has catching, building, farming, fighting, exploring, etc.
• Meaningful Progression: you have to ensure the core actions have a constant payoff for their hard work. For example, breeding your Pals to be absolute mining units. 
• Challenges: requires a reasonable amount of difficulty that doesn’t frustrate players
• Transition: a big challenge or boss that helps them move onto the next stage of gameplay

4. Simple messaging works

Take a look at this screenshot on their Steam page. Immediately, you think Pokemon + guns. Fuck yeah, that was very intentional. Mizobe literally confirmed it, because “Americans love guns.”

I also believe people appreciated how they didn’t take their own game too seriously. I mean, it looks like an absolute joke. Streamers started titling their streams “pokemon + guns,” too. It’s a simple message that people laughed at, but were immediately curious about. Once the realized that the game actually was good, they pulled the trigger.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/arts/palworld-pokemon-steam-release.html

5. Patience = longevity

No studio could have predicted the scale of Palworld’s success. While most might have been tempted to rush updates and cash-in early, they took a patient approach to think about the long-term success of the game.

Palworld’s Roadmap: Source: https://twitter.com/Palworld_EN/status/1750103684971987108?lang=en

Palworld’s open communication was refreshing to see. With a clear roadmap that has taken player feedback into serious consideration, they’ve shown all the right signs that they’ll continue to pour their resources into this game. 

The biggest example is their dedication to running the servers ‘at all costs.’ Running them cost 70 million Yen or nearly $475,000 in February alone. Their network engineer Chujo Hiroto is quoted saying he’s just following the order and never letting the service go down no matter what. “We have prepared servers without regard to cost.”

Even more recently, Palworld openly asked their fans how they would feel about transitioning to a free-to-play, live service model to ‘extend its lifespan.’ Fans quickly voiced their concerns, and Palworld quickly reaffirmed that their game will remain buy-to-play until they find a way to monetize without alienating their core fans.

Now, this is how you build a loyal fanbase.

6. Master your assets

Now let’s talk about some real actionable marketing shit. Palworld’s marketing assets are incredible. You have to think of your Steam page like your official storefront. If you’re selling luxury items, you don’t want dog shit smeared on your sidewalk. No, you want huge, pristine doors, and you want it to smell absolutely incredible as soon as you step into those doors. 

Here’s what they’ve done:

Brilliant homepage that clearly defines their launch date and influencer application.

Steam Page with stunning capsule art and incredibly cute trailer.

Constantly updated press kit with new assets

Source: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EOHBlV2_ad15NO3-hmCUvJelMmAVFLB3

7. Big devs are easily butthurt (and everyone knows)

Plenty of AAA developers who are in bed with big media love to claim that Palworld is dead. The narrative was that it was just a hyped-up game with no substance. But before we talk about how the numbers dropped off, it’s important to establish that it’s ultimately a single-player game with limited content (because it isn’t even the full release). 

They had no idea how popular the launch would be. And instead of rushing updates, they have devised a sustainable plan to release content that keeps the game balanced while serving its community’s feedback.

And clearly, AAA developers got their panties in a knot just like they did with Baldur’s Gate. Maybe they feel a little threatened considering Palworld was front and center of every screen at Xbox’s Town Hall (and a ton of Xbox gaming marketing assets this year).

Source: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/pc-game-pass

Dead by Daylight’s Chief of Staff wrote a lengthy post on Linkedin berating why he doesn’t think Palworld is very good. Poor balancing, emptiness, boring and repetitive, and buggy experiences were his claims. It’s a bit rich coming from a game that had multiple game-breaking bugs months into launch. 

Source: u/PeachTeapot https://www.reddit.com/r/Palworld/comments/1ah4l1v/dbd_commenting_on_palworld_is_a_joke/

If anything, seeing big devs act so salty and squirm in their pants makes Palworld’s fans even happier. We love rooting for the underdog, don’t we?

8. Everything is marketing

It’s all these elements that make Palworld unique and exciting. Mizobe says,”it’s possible to talk about the success of individual marketing measures on a small scale, but 1.4 million Wishlists is pretty big. In this case, rather than the success being due to effective marketing strategies, I believe that as a game, Palworld simply has the potential to expand on a global scale.”

Although I think he should give his marketing team a little bit more credit, his thesis is still true. Great products make marketing easy. You can’t polish a turd. All the strategies we covered above, including PR, communications, and art, are all part of marketing after all.

What the lawsuit means for gaming

Now, this can be its own article.  I’m not an expert in Japanese law by any means, but this video explains a similar Nintendo lawsuit in depth. Experts are speculating that they’re suing based on the patented mechanic of throwing a monster ball. It’s safe to assume they couldn’t find any infringement on character design, so they’re moving forward with a technicality. 

An editor from MIT argues that video game patents are kind of useless. He argues that unlike pharmaceuticals, where research and clinical testing are costly, game mechanics are ‘inherently derivative.’ MOBAs existed before Dota, which existed before League of Legends. Rampart existed before Bloons Tower Defense, which existed before Kingdom Rush. And his main point is that patenting game mechanics only hurts indie games, and deters smaller developers from iterating on new ideas.

Nintendo has the best lawyers in the industry. They effectively wiped out the emulator, Yuzu, with a $2.4 million lawsuit (and even forced a Twitch streamer to change her name from Pokeprincxss to digitalprincxss). In reality, Nintendo has a strong case and has a high possibility of winning. 

The lawsuit is a lawsuit against indie games

I think Palworld’s response was perfect. In an attempt to gather more attention and gather support, they positioned themselves as the underdogs who will fight to ‘ensure indies aren’t discouraged from pursuing new ideas.’ To build on the ‘everything is marketing idea,’ I think it was smart to create an ‘us vs the big guys’ mentality. People naturally want to support the underdog, and Palworld’s fanbase is even starting to donate or encourage more players to buy the game.

We’ll have to see what happens. In the meantime, I’ll be working on my Palworld base.

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