Palworld CEO Rejects Acquisition: 'Never Happening'

Last summer, the developer of Palworld, Pocketpair, entered into a significant agreement with Sony Music Entertainment. This deal was aimed at expanding the Palworld universe beyond video games into merchandise, music, and other products. However, this partnership led some fans to mistakenly believe that it signaled an impending acquisition of Pocketpair, especially following earlier rumors that the company was in discussions with Microsoft for a potential buyout.

Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe later clarified that those acquisition rumors were untrue at the time, but the speculation fueled a lot of discussion among the gaming community. Since then, the conversation around Pocketpair's potential acquisition has continued, particularly as Microsoft has been aggressively acquiring AA studios and reportedly showing interest in Japanese developers, while Sony has also been making strategic acquisitions in response.

So, will Pocketpair ever be acquired? The decision ultimately lies with Mizobe. At last month's Game Developers Conference, I had the opportunity to speak with John 'Bucky' Buckley, Pocketpair's communications director and publishing manager, about this topic. Buckley expressed strong doubts about the possibility of Pocketpair being acquired, stating, "Our CEO would never allow it. 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."

Buckley's comments were emphatic. He continued, "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."

In our interview, Buckley and I also discussed the possibility of Palworld coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, the studio's reaction to the game being labeled "Pokemon with guns," and more. You can delve into the full discussion [ttpp].