For years, Nintendo, and its gaming platforms alone, had Pokémon. But now that Xbox owners finally have Palworld, a hundred million or so PlayStation gamers are left on the outside looking in as they look for an alternative. However, the supposedly Xbox exclusive creature hunting game might eventually be available on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
Shuhei Yoshida, one of the longest-running PlayStation executives and a former President of SIE Worldwide Studios, has recently fueled speculations of a platform jump for the controversial title after replying to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
As Palworld’s official Japanese account celebrated what was the first of many upcoming milestones as the game sold 1 million copies within 8 hours of launching on Steam, Yoshida congratulated Pocket Pair for the achievement. Then, when asked by a fan about a potential PS5 port, Yoshida replied simply by saying “Yes.”
Of course, this isn’t an official translation, so the actual reply might have been lost. However, the fact that Yoshida, now the Head of Independent Developer Initiative at SIE, bothered to congratulate Palworld, whose developers, Pocketpair, are technically a relatively small independent studio based in Tokyo, Japan, does hint at an imminent PS4 and PS5 port of the game.
Unfortunately, since Palworld is still in Early Access, PlayStation owners will have a long wait ahead.
Most of the time, a game in Early Access won’t be available on other platforms until after its public release. In Palworld’s case, Pocketpair intends to work on the game for at least year before releasing it publicly. This means the earliest that Palworld’s PS5 port will arrive is sometime in early 2025.
Palworld was initially revealed as an Xbox exclusive, but the game’s FAQ section on Steam doesn’t completely rule out a PlayStation port.
Despite its lack of availability on PlayStation, Palworld has become a worldwide phenomenon. The game now officially outsold The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in its launch week, selling 8 million copies in six days. Unfortunately, its commercial success has put it on Nintendo’s radar, with The Pokémon Company promising to look into the allegations of copyright infringement.
