Palworld CEO jokes server costs may bankrupt them after paying $500k in January
Palworld has been a huge success since it launched with 19 million players currently split across Xbox and PC but its server costs are sky high.
03rd Feb 2024 20:04
Images via Pocketpair
Palworld CEO jokes server costs may bankrupt them after paying $500k in January
Palworld has been a huge success since it launched with 19 million players currently split across Xbox and PC but its server costs are sky high.
03rd Feb 2024 20:04
Images via Pocketpair
Palworld has been a huge success since it launched with 19 million players currently split across Xbox and PC.
Naturally, having this many people jumping into the game has meant that server costs haven’t been cheap, and Pocketpair claims to have gone the extra mile to make sure their servers never go down.
Palworld servers cost a whopping $500k per month
A recent tweet from the CEO of Palworld’s developer Pocketpair revealed that the games servers cost a huge ¥7053万 which is roughly $475,000 or £376,000.
In a tweet which has been translated from Japanese, CEO Takuro Mizobe said: “Wait, maybe they'll go bankrupt due to server fees?”
This number is seemingly only referring to its current server costs, so only time will tell how much they could really cost if the game becomes any more popular.
Considering the game only released on 18 January, it is likely to hit an even more absurd number before the first month is up.
Chujo Hiroto, Palworld’s network engineer, added more information about why the costs are so high in a separate tweet.
He said: “Following the order to never let the service go down no matter what, we have prepared servers without regard to cost.
“We will continue to give our all to ensure that all players can enjoy to the fullest! $478,000…”
Phenomenal success doesn’t come cheap
It is fairly clear that Pocketpair is currently focusing more on player experience than it is on profits, at least as far as servers are concerned.
As it stands, this isn’t too much of an ask.
While spending $6 million a year is not a small sum, based on their current sales it is likely they will make 50 times that amount from sales alone.
However, if Pocketpair doesn't come up with a way to reduce server costs in the future, it could become more challenging once the initial sales burst dies down.
Some fans have suggested that microtransactions could be the way forward though these are not currently featured in Palworld.
One player wrote: “I think it would be nice to add costumes and battle pass features to increase revenue even more. I'll definitely buy it.”
Though this could help raise funds, the introduction of microtransactions would likely be an unpopular one.
Palworld’s success in the past few weeks has been immense and the team is handling the popularity well.
While the servers may be expensive, they are clearly working well and it is refreshing to see a company that seemingly cares more about the player experience than maximising profits.
About The Author
Megan Cooke
Megan is GGRecon's Evening & Weekend News Writer. She has an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing and is working towards finishing her masters in Journalism. When she isn’t writing about games she can be found reading romance novels or playing cosy games like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, APICO, and Disney Dreamlight Valley.
