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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

The CEO of PocketPair, Takuro Mizobe, made a comment regarding Palworld's high server fees on his personal X (formerly Twitter) account on February 2.

Post translation: Huh, could we possibly go bankrupt from server fees?

In the short period since its release on January 19, Palworld has accumulated over 19 million players, achieving record-breaking sales. The huge commercial success was not anticipated even by the developers themselves, who are a relatively small-scale indie company. This has led to them experiencing difficulties in keeping up with the unprecedented high traffic and numerous inquiries from players experiencing problems.

This time around, PocketPair's CEO brought up the topic of Palworld's server fees, which are expected to exceed 70 million yen (around $480,000 USD based on recent exchange rates) for January. This makes for a 359% increase compared to the previous month. Though he uses the worrying term "bankruptcy," it is most likely hyperbole, but the huge figure no doubt came as a surprise to the team.

Palworld's network engineer quoted the post in question, mentioning that the Palworld servers were set up with a focus on not allowing services to be suspended at any cost, thus undermining profitability. They also reassured users that they will do everything they can so that players can keep enjoying Palworld.

In response, users have been (half-jokingly, half-seriously) calling on Microsoft to step in and help, considering their recently announced plan to provide direct support to PocketPair in optimizing Palworld for their platform.

Palworld developer’s CEO talks about “going bankrupt” from server fees - AUTOMATON WEST

PocketPair's CEO Takuro Mizobe has shared an estimate of Palworld's monthly server fees, together with the caption "could we go bankrupt."

automaton-media.com

 

[Majukun]

Probably just a joke, at least i hope for them it is

 

[DenchDeckard]

We're shares available in this company?

 

[Cyborg]

Cowboy company run by a wild cowboy. Aint gonna last long

 

[Daneel Elijah]

Probably just a joke, at least i hope for them it is

They probably did not have a good deal in place as they have been surprised by the success of Palword. Imagine selling stuff on Amazon as a private person and selling millions? Amazon fees would be astronomical too. It will change when the previous deal expire, or when the load will stabilize and they can go get a better deal elsewhere.

 

[Bkdk]

going to become subscription based very soon.

 

[BlackTron]

Not sustainable without lowering their fees or adopting a different pricing model.

Just wait until the legal fees though.

 

[xrnzaaas]

They are going to be fine as long as they manage to retain player's interest in the game. First step to that is probably going to be introducing seasonal content with additional paid options.

 

[StueyDuck]

Palworld developer’s CEO talks about “going bankrupt” from server fees - AUTOMATON WEST

PocketPair's CEO Takuro Mizobe has shared an estimate of Palworld's monthly server fees, together with the caption "could we go bankrupt."

automaton-media.com

They made plenty of money with their slapped together game, If they can't stay afloat from the literal 100s of millions then maybe game development isn't for them

 

[Wildebeest]

It is at the point where businesses are really paying through the nose for the convenience of not managing their own servers.

 

[Sweden85]

Didn't get enough cash from Microsoft..gamepass is killing it

 

[Urban]

The battlebit developers had the same problem at the start because they got the steam money after 3-6 months afaik?

 

[Ozriel]

I see many people didn’t bother to read the OP

 

[BlackTron]

They are going to be fine as long as they manage to retain player's interest in the game. First step to that is probably going to be introducing seasonal content with additional paid options.

So in other words, as long as they adopt a new monetization strategy they will be fine

 

[Topher]

This falls under "nice problem to have".

 

[Kiya's Guard]

I'm quite positive the server costs will reduce drastically in a couple months

 

[DaGwaphics]

I'm sure it is a problem they are happy to have. So, long as they have plenty of whales buying extra crap.

 

[mitch1971]

I'm confused. For years people have been harping on about how cheap servers are to run, and console makers should be making all MP free. So, what is it, costs or no costs?

 

[ReBurn]

I'm confused. For years people have been harping on about how cheap servers are to run, and console makers should be making all MP free. So, what is it, costs or no costs?

Those people have no idea what it actually costs to run servers. They think everything runs on $5 Digital Ocean training wheel servers.

These folks probably didn't count on supporting 13 million players on their servers when they opened up early access. Lack of optimization could make compute and bandwidth utilization higher than it would be in a finIshed product. No doubt they're running servers on someone else's service and it costs what it costs.

 

[Wonko_C]

I was under the wrong impression that all a dev had to do was use Steamworks for their online play and Valve took care of everything else, which was covered by the 30% cut they take fron each copy sold.

 

[Codes 208]

The lack of rentable dedicated servers is starting to make sense i guess.

To be completely honest this is one of those games I’d be fine with a monthly fee for servers ala minecraft realms

 

[poppabk]

I'm confused. For years people have been harping on about how cheap servers are to run, and console makers should be making all MP free. So, what is it, costs or no costs?

I mean they are paying 2.5 cents per player per month.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

 

[RespawnX]

I mean they are paying 2.5 cents per player per month.

Hype will decrease, players move on and fees going down. Very hyperbolic post. They made a lot of money and if they still feel overwhelmed by the fees, they may check the network code and also fix some of the many of network errors.

 

[BouncyFrag]

 

[midnightAI]

They made plenty of money with their slapped together game, If they can't stay afloat from the literal 100s of millions then maybe game development isn't for them

I am shocked the server costs are so high, but still, because this game is a one off cost, they could still have millions playing the game each month now (which costs 100's of thousands of dollars each month according to them) without getting the same amount of sales, methinks also that they probably undersold it to MS for putting on GamePass. which means not a lot of money for millions of players costing them money in server fees. It's own success could ultimately be its own downfall.

 

[Fabieter]

I am shocked the server costs are so high, but still, because this game is a one off cost, they could still have millions playing the game each month now (which costs 100's of thousands of dollars each month according to them) without getting the same amount of sales, methinks also that they probably undersold it to MS for putting on GamePass. which means not a lot of money for millions of players costing them money in server fees. It's own success could ultimately be its own downfall.

Yes we had a leak what ms was willing to pay for bg3 to get it on gamepass day one before it blew up it was 5m$. I dont think pocketchair got more money than that.

 

[Mister Wolf]

 

[Magic Carpet]

Hopefully Microsoft is footing at least the Xbox online part.
Game has no microtransactions, so I don't know how they pay anything for ongoing server fees.

 

[MikeM]

There’s no offline component??

 

[StueyDuck]

I am shocked the server costs are so high, but still, because this game is a one off cost, they could still have millions playing the game each month now (which costs 100's of thousands of dollars each month according to them) without getting the same amount of sales, methinks also that they probably undersold it to MS for putting on GamePass. which means not a lot of money for millions of players costing them money in server fees. It's own success could ultimately be its own downfall.

Usually these games make a partnership with a hosting company so that people can rent servers and they both make a bit of money back but I don't know how the palworld situation is to be honest

 

[bender]

There is a creatively bankrupt joke here somewhere but I'm tired, boss.

 

[DaGwaphics]

I'm confused. For years people have been harping on about how cheap servers are to run, and console makers should be making all MP free. So, what is it, costs or no costs?

It's not that often that you hear that argument exactly, for a couple reasons. One, the consoles are not providing game servers for developers, those are still required with most of the connections between consoles coming via the developers servers or P2P between the consoles. Two, what the consoles are providing is a shared infrastructure that devs can plug into to facilitate a unified ID, friends lists, etc., something that Steam, Epic, Xbox/MS, and the other launchers have been providing on PC at no cost for quite some time. That's where the "console tax" mentality comes from.

 

[Sentenza]

I can't believe some people are struggling to grasp that this was meant as an OBVIOUS joke, and not "probably one" or "maybe hyperbole".
They are getting filthy rich, so of course it won't be the server fees that will hinder their finances.

 

[Codeblew]

It is at the point where businesses are really paying through the nose for the convenience of not managing their own servers.

It can be worth it if they are just paying for machines and not expensive software services. They can also save a lot of money if they don't use google, amazon or microsoft clouds. I also would hope they are using Linux and not Windows to cut costs further.

 

[midnightAI]

I can't believe some people are struggling to grasp that this was meant as an OBVIOUS joke, and not "probably one" or "maybe hyperbole".
They are getting filthy rich, so of course it won't be the server fees that will hinder their finances.

It will potentially if sales stop with no other monetisation but millions continue to play it

So while it is meant as hyperbole I'm sure they are keeping a close eye on it.

 

[thief183]

I think we are reading too much from a simple joke....

 

[Sentenza]

It will potentially if sales stop with no other monetisation but millions continue to play it

So while it is meant as hyperbole I'm sure they are keeping a close eye on it.

If it was all about server fees and no other factor, it would take them DECADES to drain what they made with the sales in the first months alone.
And that's assuming they would stop selling tomorrow.

But yeah, of course they will look for a way to lower the cost if they can.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Just let Microsoft buy you out and let them worry about server fees.

 

[Saber]

For their sake, I hope thats not true...at least not entirelly.
On the other news they could do well not needing servers? Maybe do a singleplayer experience(you know, the one without internet connection) and eliminate the costs of servers, if thats the problem.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

going to become subscription based very soon.

Good news then that offline and private seevers are a thing too.

 

[Holammer]

There’s no offline component??

You can play offline if you want,or put up your own server if you want.