Palworld announces merch after a new partnership with Sony Music, and I'm praying to Jormuntide Ignis that means plushies
Time for some cuddly pals.
After a ridiculously successful launch, dodging accusations of copyright infringement, and a great new patch, Palworld has confirmed the next step for the survival game that's best known for giving adorable monsters guns: Palworld merchandise, which most players hope means plushies.
"We are thrilled to announce that Palworld merchandise will be available for pre-order sales at Aniplex's directly-managed select shop, Aniplex Online," tweets the official Palworld account. "Product lineup details will be announced on Aniplex's shop website later on. Please look forward to the ever-expanding Palworld!"
A prior tweet also confirms that Pocketpair has teamed up with Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) and Aniplex to carry out this new merchandise plan. Aniplex is known for producing and distributing anime series, but its store also sells merch like plushies and scale figures. So it's understandable that most of the replies to Pocketpair's tweet are just fans asking for various plushies and toys.
"Palworld merch means 1:1 scale plushie of a Chillet, right? Giant Relaxaurus plushie would be cool too," one player replies. A life-size Chillet isn't outrageous, but it may be an ordeal to ship as this Pal clocks in at around 14 feet long. A scale plushie of Relaxaurus may be pushing the boat out too far, though, as they're at least three times the size of your in-game character, I'm not sure it would even fit into my flat.
The news of a merchandise deal also comes a few weeks after Pocketpair confirmed that it hadn't received any complaints from Nintendo concerning the claims of copyright infringement that many players accused the survival game of when it released. Some Pokemon fans got a bit angry at just how similar the character models in Palworld seemed to be, calling it lazy work, while others claimed that the similarities were just coincidence and that it was more like paying homage to Pokemon than copying. Either way, those accusations are firmly in the rear-view mirror for Pocketpair.
So after this sliver of good news, plus the successful release of Sakurajima, a new Palworld update that added new pals, an island, and more patches, it looks like the coast really is clear for Pocketpair to make the most out of its cute monsters and start to expand its business down some new avenues.