Palworld to launch in 2026, developer says surprises coming with winter update

Palworld to exit Early Access next year

Open-world action-adventure survival game Palworld will come out of Early Access and launch in 2026, developer Pocketpair announced. Palworld 1.0 will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Steam and Microsoft Store). The developer didn’t give a release date.

The action-adventure survival crafting game first launched in Early Access for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC on January 19, 2024. It was later released on PlayStation 5 in Early Access on September 24, 2024.

John Buckley, Communications Director and Publishing Manager, Pocketpair, said in a YouTube video: “Beyond just adding new content, there’s a lot of cleanup that needs to be done before Palworld can exit Early Access. It’s no secret that Palworld has a lot of quirks and jank, and we want to take the time to properly address those before releasing the game. With that in mind, we plan to start that cleanup this year. Our goal is to ultimately release Palworld next year, in 2026, and we think taking the time now to fix those problems will ultimately lead to a better game.”

He added that the company’s “winter update won’t be as big as [the] February [update] was. We hope our players understand that we’re taking this extra time to improve the game overall. Now, that said, it doesn’t mean there will be no updates, but we still do have a few surprises planned for our winter update this year.”

Palworld is currently selling at 25% off on Steam, and the offer will be valid until September 22. The current, Early Access build of the monster-taming game comes with complete core Palworld systems, like monster catching, battles, exploration, building and crafting. The open world of the game features over 100 monsters, more than 350 items and over 70 types of buildings.