Palworld Dev CEO Likes "Being His Own Boss" And Would Never Sell Pocketpair

Summary

Palworld’s massive success has caught the attention of major video game companies.
Pocketpair Inc. is not open to being acquired, with the CEO staunchly against selling.
Despite ongoing lawsuits, discussions include future releases on the Switch 2 console.

When launched in January 2024, no one — and I mean no one — could have predicted how big the game would be. It shot to the top of the best-sellers list on Steam, and garnered millions of users right away.

With success like that, most people take notice, and that includes gigantic video game companies looking to shore up their development production. Well, you can take Palworld developer Pocketpair Inc. out of any discussion about that.

“We give money. You make game.”

Pocketpair Is Not Open To Being Acquired For Now

While the major decision whether the company will be sold is up to Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe, when Communications Director and Publishing Manager John “Bucky” Buckley was asked about it by at the recent Game Developers Conference, his answer was quite definitive.

Buckley said, “Our CEO would never allow it,” and added, “He’d never allow it. He’d never allow it. He would never, never allow it. He likes doing his own thing and he likes being his own boss. He doesn’t like people telling him what to do.”

Not only that, but Buckley thinks the only time Mizobe will sell it is when he gets old, “So I would be shocked. Maybe when he’s old, and he might just sell it off for money. And that would be sad, but in my lifetime, I probably won’t see it. No, it’ll be interesting to see where the two paths go. We, Pocketpair, are obviously only involved in where the game path is going. Palworld as an IP, we are involved, but it’s very much in the hands of Aniplex and Sony Music who are steering that ship right now. We are just offering our advice and thoughts as they take that.”

Buckley Sony’s reference was an agreement between Sony Music Entertainment and Pocketpair to produce merchandise, music, and other products based on the Palworld IP.

While the company’s CEO might not have any intention of selling the studio, His tune might change once a bajillions of dollars are promised his way.

In other news about the game, the latest Palworld update seemed to be even better than the real one. When it comes to future game releases, Pocketpair is despite an ongoing lawsuit with console maker Nintendo.