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[llLeonhart]

How in the fucking hell does Paul Tassi still get to write this bullshit?

Fucking blind fanboy, that somehow still manages to make the brand look even worse.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Seems a bit premature if they did do that. They've made a bit of a breakout hit, but I can't imagine it having the staying power of something like Minecraft or Fortnite for example.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

I got a leak with their strategy in three steps.

First - Buy the studio for around 3 billion.

Second - Fire 49% of the staff (Redundant positions only. The majority remains)

Third - Make it multiplatform. (PS5 enhanced version with haptic feedback and an exclusive pals pack)

 

[LordCBH]

I wonder if they've ever considered actually making a game instead?

They’d need to actually hire people, and not just sign people to 18 month contracts. Easier to buy what actual talented people already did.

 

[Frwrd]

All you need to know: Paul Tassi

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

do it MS. buy everything you want. i bet everything is going to be juuuuuuust fiiiiiine.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Didn't they just kill off Toys for Bob and the entire Skylanders series? Is this the replacement for Spyro?

Where my Steath Elf At?

 

[Zelduh]

Palworld is a stupid streamer flavor of the month tiktok fad no one will remember or care about soon, and is worthless. That said I hope they do it buy it for billions and billions so they waste their money buying a trash studio with a trash asset flip meme game they overspent on

 

[diffusionx]

Palworld is a stupid streamer flavor of the month tiktok fad no one will remember or care about soon, and is worthless. That said I hope they do it buy it for billions and billions so they waste their money buying a trash studio with a trash asset flip meme game they overspent on

Agree.

Minecraft was around for years before MS bought it, if they did this for every FOTM survivalslop on Steam they would own dozens of games. It is ridiculous. If the game is still top on Steam charts in 2026 then let's revisit.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

Microsoft ownership and direct interference would fucking destroy Palworld.

Minecraft is trudging along just fine though!

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

you would be smarter buying someone like pubg Corp or one of those studios if all you want is Asian made game with lots of players.

 

[Ribi]

Palworld has gained and lost a million players in the time frame of a week, that's over 50% of their big surge they had.

MS would be dumb to purchase it or the studio. It was a tiktok social media fad, you would be smarter buying someone like pubg Corp or one of those studios if all you want is Asian made game with lots of players.

Palworld will be dead within a month most likely

Not how this works especially when we are talking about a million players. The million player drop off is going to happen, there isnt a game that will keep that unless youre fortnite but even then that is spread across multiple consoles. If "lol they cant even maintain 2million over a month" is a gatcha then lol. Now lets talk numbers, a game can remain alive in the 2-3k range because it is being played by those people daily but not the same people. So when you see palworld being 1million players its not just 1million playing it, its only at that time and people rotate out so its tens of millions of players potetially playing it. Even at a low number i will guarantee you palworld will still be in the 50ks this time next month at minimum. Why? because that is how interest in a game works, it dies off but people will still play it, it happens to everything. By your logic there should be no game that should have over 100 players, it just doesnt work like that, barring a massive fuck up update the player base will decrease then stabalize but not dramatically to where its dead. That is just nonsense lmao

 

[StueyDuck]

Not how this works especially when we are talking about a million players. The million player drop off is going to happen, there isnt a game that will keep that unless youre fortnite but even then that is spread across multiple consoles. If "lol they cant even maintain 2million over a month" is a gatcha then lol. Now lets talk numbers, a game can remain alive in the 2-3k range because it is being played by those people daily but not the same people. So when you see palworld being 1million players its not just 1million playing it, its only at that time and people rotate out so its tens of millions of players potetially playing it. Even at a low number i will guarantee you palworld will still be in the 50ks this time next month at minimum. Why? because that is how interest in a game works, it dies off but people will still play it, it happens to everything. By your logic there should be no game that should have over 100 players, it just doesnt work like that, barring a massive fuck up update the player base will decrease then stabalize but not dramatically to where its dead. That is just nonsense lmao

No by my logic, a game that can't keep a millions players entertained for a week when it launched just over 2 weeks ago is a fad and a dumb investment.

MS spending millions or billions on them now after they have already made their money for a game that has a dwindling player base would essentially be dead for them.

I will be surprised if palworld can keep a ccu of 12k a few months from now. At that point they will stop supporting the game and it will be all but dead like most early access games that caught in limbo.

The numbers speak for themselves.

7 days and it's dropping players fast day per day.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Why though? So they can make it easier to put on PS5 and Switch 2?

 

[March Climber]

That’s like calling Fortnite and Roblox ‘one hit wonders’

Not quite similar. Minecraft still earns Mojang/MS money here and there, much like how a one hit wonder artist would still earn money from their most famous song being played for years.

Fortnite and Roblox are both full-on platforms at this point, meaning they are springboarding other games within them. It's why you can make a CoD-like game in Roblox or a racing game in Fortnite. I guess you would compare their situation (especially Roblox in this case) from starting as a music artist to having a full-on music label as you help bring up other artists in other genres.

What I'm stating is, much like a one hit wonder, all of Mojang's work afterwards has underperformed for MS. A good example (and you can google this), Minecraft Legends shutting down after only a year of being released.

 

[mayham2199]

After making a game this big the last thing I would want to do is sell it to MS and then watch them fire me and the rest of the employees when they are done with us.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Killing em softly...

 

[Ribi]

No by my logic, a game that can't keep a millions players entertained for a week when it launched just over 2 weeks ago is a fad and a dumb investment.

MS spending millions or billions on them now after they have already made their money for a game that has a dwindling player base would essentially be dead for them.

I will be surprised if palworld can keep a ccu of 12k a few months from now. At that point they will stop supporting the game and it will be all but dead like most early access games that caught in limbo.

i hate to break it to you but games arent fads like you think they are. Lets talk numbers:

Warframe: peak 181k lasted 1 month and immediately dropped down to 74k the following month. That was in 2021, current players = 71k

apex peak 600k, dropped down in a few months to 340k in 2023 current 170k

CS2 peak 1.8mil dropped by half in june then cs2 came out, peaked at 1.5mil then droppped to 1mil. OH NO CS2 is a fad its dying!

Lethal company peak 239k dropped half of its daily peak in a month to 100k

OH NO LETHAL COMPANY MUST BE DEAD THEN! Its clearly a fad... current players 61k and again current players does not mean total players who are playing it throughout the day. When does a game get a boost? Most updates. If you can maintain 60k as a daily peak youre in a great spot, and pal worlds rn is at *GASP* 600k players. You're telling me they are inexplicably going to be unable to retain 10% of the daily players by next month and unable to attract back fans with updates? Are you mad?

Theres a history of this, this is how games work nowadays, we have low attention spans but that doesnt mean everyone will just all at once stop playing a game for the next shiny thing. We get attached to a game that we feel comfortable in and come back to it constantly to relax.

and as for games with 12k players AS A PEAK AND THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT IS THE TOTAL PLAYERS PLAYING IT. Those games do get updates, diablo 4 has 8k rn, smite, fifa, hell let loose, hell even starfield

 

[StueyDuck]

i hate to break it to you but games arent fads like you think they are. Lets talk numbers:

Warframe: peak 181k lasted 1 month and immediately dropped down to 74k the following month. That was in 2021, current players = 71k

apex peak 600k, dropped down in a few months to 340k in 2023 current 170k

CS2 peak 1.8mil dropped by half in june then cs2 came out, peaked at 1.5mil then droppped to 1mil. OH NO CS2 is a fad its dying!

Lethal company peak 239k dropped half of its daily peak in a month to 100k

OH NO LETHAL COMPANY MUST BE DEAD THEN! Its clearly a fad... current players 61k and again current players does not mean total players who are playing it throughout the day. When does a game get a boost? Most updates. If you can maintain 60k as a daily peak youre in a great spot, and pal worlds rn is at *GASP* 600k players. You're telling me they are inexplicably going to be unable to retain 10% of the daily players by next month and unable to attract back fans with updates? Are you mad?

Theres a history of this, this is how games work nowadays, we have low attention spans but that doesnt mean everyone will just all at once stop playing a game for the next shiny thing. We get attached to a game that we feel comfortable in and come back to it constantly to relax.

and as for games with 12k players AS A PEAK AND THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT IS THE TOTAL PLAYERS PLAYING IT. Those games do get updates, diablo 4 has 8k rn, smite, fifa, hell let loose, hell even starfield

The game is literally dropping 100s of thousands of players daily its only been out for 3 weeks.

Your whataboutisms are silly because nothing compares to the meteoric rise and devastating drop off the game is having.

I'd hate to break it to you but if you were the head of MS and someone came up to you and said "let's buy this studio" they've had 1 breakout title which is essentially ip plagiarism and not only did it have success but gamers are dropping off at an equal rate, you'd be an idiot to think that's a smart investment

Look I get it, grrr pokemon, grr Nintendo, we all got fed the same tiktok story, everyone and their uncle played the game cause the internet told them too. But you show me another game that had 2mil ccu after a week of release and then after 3 weeks lost up to 60% of their player base

Losing 1.4 millions players 7 days after they bought your game with the number continuing to trend downwards at an exponential rate is essentially record breaking. It would be a moronic investment by any company.

 

[Ronin_7]

How in the fucking hell does Paul Tassi still get to write this bullshit?

Fucking blind fanboy, that somehow still manages to make the brand look even worse.

Is a piece of shit living on shitty journalism.

 

[Roman Empire]

Guess Paul Tassi has nothing better to write about since Destiny news are scarce.

 

[ShadowkillXNA]

I wonder if they've ever considered actually making a game instead?

Halo, Gears Of War, Minecraft, Starfield. Why start now?
Of course not. The company doesn't have a creative bone in it's corporate body.
They're all spreadsheets, word processors, os's, cloud services, ai.

 

[Bond007]

The absolute worst.
I mean they been doing this since inception so not much of surprise. Wouldnt have been this long in the industry if it wasnt for being able to stay afloat financially/MS deep pockets - as a stand alone entity pfft.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

I can see it now:
"Microsoft buys Palworld dev!"

Two weeks later:

"Microsoft to layoff every Palworld dev that still has passion for the project."

 

[twilo99]

Microsoft ownership and direct interference would fucking destroy Palworld.

Minecraft being a great example of that of course

 

[Dr_Ifto]

I can see it now:
"Microsoft buys Palworld dev!"

Two weeks later:

"Microsoft to layoff every Palworld dev that still has passion for the project."

More like,

Two weeks later:

Microsft to layoff every palword AI and will use their own.

 

[Ribi]

The game is literally dropping 100s of thousands of players daily its only been out for 3 weeks.

Your whataboutisms are silly because nothing compares to the meteoric rise and devastating drop off the game is having.

I'd hate to break it to you but if you were the head of MS and someone came up to you and said "let's buy this studio" they've had 1 breakout title which is essentially ip plagiarism and not only did it have success but gamers are dropping off at an equal rate, you'd be an idiot to think that's a smart investment

Look I get it, grrr pokemon, grr Nintendo, we all got fed the same tiktok story, everyone and their uncle played the game cause the internet told them too. But you show me another game that had 2mil ccu after a week of release and then after 3 weeks lost up to 60% of their player base

Losing 1.4 millions players 7 days after they bought your game with the number continuing to trend downwards at an exponential rate is essentially record breaking. It would be a moronic investment by any company.

you really dont understand how games and player bases fluctuate, youre so caught up on the decline from 2mil that youre not seeing the real player retention from a game with multiplayer as a backbone. How dense are you because it seems that as an outsider youre trying to doom a very successful game and still spinning the narrative that somehow its failed and piling on that it has no qualities about it that can retain player. Heres a shocker for you: It didnt start at 2million players, it started at 0, it doesnt only have 600k plays playing it dailiy, it has tens of millions logging on throughout the day. What other game have you seen with 2mil players and 12k the next month? name one?

Avatar bet: come March 12 Palworlds will still have over 60k players as a dailiy peak since youre so obcessed with peaks.

 

[Ozriel]

Not quite similar. Minecraft still earns Mojang/MS money here and there, much like how a one hit wonder artist would still earn money from their most famous song being played for years.

Fortnite and Roblox are both full-on platforms at this point, meaning they are springboarding other games within them. It's why you can make a CoD-like game in Roblox or a racing game in Fortnite. I guess you would compare their situation (especially Roblox in this case) from starting as a music artist to having a full-on music label as you help bring up other artists in other genres.

What I'm stating is, much like a one hit wonder, all of Mojang's work afterwards has underperformed for MS. A good example (and you can google this), Minecraft Legends shutting down after only a year of being released.

Yes, Mojang’s spinoffs have not been successful. But their existing product remains immensely popular and continues to make money to this day. Not to the extent of Roblox or Fortnite that are veritable platforms on their own, but certainly not like what you were trying to convey with the ‘one hit wonder’ line.

MS bought Mojang for Minecraft as a trans-media IP. There’s no indication that Palworld is going to be anywhere as successful or enduring.

 

[Represent.]

I wonder if they've ever considered actually making a game instead?

They are not a creative company. This isn’t even a diss. It’s just true. They aren’t a creative company and they lack soul

 

[WitchHunter]

I wonder if they've ever considered actually making a game instead?

You want pigheaded horses roaming around, is that what you really want?

 

[StueyDuck]

you really dont understand how games and player bases fluctuate, youre so caught up on the decline from 2mil that youre not seeing the real player retention from a game with multiplayer as a backbone. How dense are you because it seems that as an outsider youre trying to doom a very successful game and still spinning the narrative that somehow its failed and piling on that it has no qualities about it that can retain player. Heres a shocker for you: It didnt start at 2million players, it started at 0, it doesnt only have 600k plays playing it dailiy, it has tens of millions logging on throughout the day. What other game have you seen with 2mil players and 12k the next month? name one?

Avatar bet: come March 12 Palworlds will still have over 60k players as a dailiy peak since youre so obcessed with peaks.

I'm not taking an avatar bet you don't need to be palworlds brave knight. They will be ok.

It's a dumb investment for MS right now since it's a game on its way out.

You do understand how stats work right? Imagine hiring an actuary for your company and he comes back with "uhhh well like it fluctuates" .

The numbers right now say the game will be dead in a few months. That is just statistically what the numbers are saying, now I know you love palworld and pokemon grrrr. But 1.4 million players and continuously dropping in a matter of 7 days is not "fluctuating"

You do understand how short of a time frame 3 weeks is yes? And you understand what a million is right? Like numerically

 

[March Climber]

Yes, Mojang’s spinoffs have not been successful. But their existing product remains immensely popular and continues to make money to this day. Not to the extent of Roblox or Fortnite that are veritable platforms on their own, but certainly not like what you were trying to convey with the ‘one hit wonder’ line.

It is exactly what I'm trying to convey by saying one hit wonder. You're only taking the negative connotations from being a one hit wonder. I don't dislike Minecraft nor Mojang. I'm simply explaining what I see. If they're still making money from their one hit, then that's a good thing, same as a music artist still earning money from their song being used in a movie 20 years later.

MS bought Mojang for Minecraft as a trans-media IP. There’s no indication that Palworld is going to be anywhere as successful or enduring.

That's fair. We will have to find out if it has legs.

 

[Mr Moose]

Paul Tassi? Paul Tassi.

That’s like calling Fortnite and Roblox ‘one hit wonders’

Didn't they make Unreal Tournament and Gears of War?

 

[ultrazilla]

I'm actually surprised that Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft hasn't bought them already.

It's only a matter of time.

 

[StereoVsn]

It's hardly a show is it? It's basically clearing up hopefully an absolute PR shitshow. We need a balance though on here I'm sure you'd agree that the Xbox/Microsoft hate is very real.

Do we need a balance? Does a $3 trillion company that is firing people left and right, some after assuring the court they wouldn’t, need a defense force?

Let’s make it clear, none of these companies merit any defense (including Sony and Nintendo), and that goes 10x for MS.

 

[tmlDan]

Paul Tassi should be fired, i know Forbes doesn't have much credibility at this point but he's the most amateur writer/journo i've ever seen

 

[Ribi]

I'm not taking an avatar bet you don't need to be palworlds brave knight. They will be ok.

It's a dumb investment for MS right now since it's a game on its way out.

You do understand how stats work right? Imagine hiring an actuary for your company and he comes back with "uhhh well like it fluctuates" .

The numbers right now say the game will be dead in a few months. That is just statistically what the numbers are saying, now I know you love palworld and pokemon grrrr. But 1.4 million players and continuously dropping in a matter of 7 days is not "fluctuating"

You do understand how short of a time frame 3 weeks is yes? And you understand what a million is right? Like numerically

Scared, bwwkk bwkkk chicken bwwkkk and im not a palfurry i just have some braincells to know that games dont just fucking die overnight especially ones that attract millions of players across multiple platforms. What does your one brain cell tell you is a "dead" game even? currently there isnt even a game that has over 1 mil players on steam as i type this... the highest is 800k by cs and the second is dota and third is that fucking dead ass game palworld with 600k what a fucking loser ass dead game that game is right? only 600k fucking hell shut down that studio and stop supporting tthe game its already dead

 

[Ar¢tos]

Halo, Gears Of War, Minecraft, Starfield. Why start now?
Of course not. The company doesn't have a creative bone in it's corporate body.
They're all spreadsheets, word processors, os's, cloud services, ai.

Are you seriously crediting MS for Minecraft and Starfield?
Minecraft was released when MS bought Mojang and Starfield was basically done when they bought Bethesda.

They also bought Halo, they didn't create it.
Gears was developed for them but not by them until Gears 4.

You really need to pick better examples of Microsoft's ...creativity...

 

[ResilientBanana]

I guess MS did buy a one-hit-wonder studio before (Minecraft/Mojang). Would they do it again?

And they are making millions with it.

 

[CamHostage]

MS bought Mojang for Minecraft as a trans-media IP. There’s no indication that Palworld is going to be anywhere as successful or enduring.

Palworld also needs to sustain content delivery (albeit the core addiction loop is strong as it is,) which would mean ripping off more Pokémon coming up with more Pals and integrating/ balancing new charades with value for them in the mechanics that renews the drive to play and pay.

Currently there's no microtransaction systems or "Season 2" announced, but eventually it will have to hit up its player base for money somehow if growth and turnover does not sustain. If it keeps running as the same game for the same players on the same servers at the same price, they're in trouble once this meteoric rise finds its level.

 

[LakeOf9]

lol

 

[saintjules]

I wonder if they've ever considered actually making a game instead?

Kind of baffling right? Then again I wouldn't be surprised if all of the best developers and teams are acquired elsewhere.

With all that money too and can't produce. Guess size doesn't matter.

 

[ShadowkillXNA]

Are you seriously crediting MS for Minecraft and Starfield?
Minecraft was released when MS bought Mojang and Starfield was basically done when they bought Bethesda.

They also bought Halo, they didn't create it.
Gears was developed for them but not by them until Gears 4.

You really need to pick better examples of Microsoft's ...creativity...

My post included this line: "Why start now?", which was a direct response to:

I wonder if they've ever considered actually making a game instead?

Calibrate your sarcasm detector dude. I was making fun of the fact that Microsoft bought all those games/ip while they were being made by other companies.

You really need to work on your ...reading comprehension...

 

[pasterpl]

Microsoft ownership and direct interference would fucking destroy Palworld.

Yes, just like they did with minecraft.

I guess MS did buy a one-hit-wonder studio before (Minecraft/Mojang). Would they do it again?

You mean money printing machine called Minecraft

 

[StueyDuck]

Scared, bwwkk bwkkk chicken bwwkkk and im not a palfurry i just have some braincells to know that games dont just fucking die overnight especially ones that attract millions of players across multiple platforms. What does your one brain cell tell you is a "dead" game even? currently there isnt even a game that has over 1 mil players on steam as i type this... the highest is 800k by cs and the second is dota and third is that fucking dead ass game palworld with 600k what a fucking loser ass dead game that game is right? only 600k fucking hell shut down that studio and stop supporting tthe game its already dead

How old are you?

Your favorite game is literally factually dying over night as we speak. you clearly have no concept of time or numbers.

You keep bringin up games that have been around for years like its some sort of gotcha, the game is 3 weeks old and has lost almost 75% of its active players. Literal 100s of thousands per day. How you cant see the graph in your head with the big arrow pointing down baffles me. Im guessing its the math they teach kids in schools these days

Please never become an actuary or a financial advisor

 

[Interfectum]

Player count is dropping like a rock and Nintendo is about to unload both barrels on them. Probably best to not buy them at this point.

 

[K' Dash]

Desperation. That's MS for you. Buy outs for perceived short term gains. It's just shouting out LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME.

F YOU MS AND XBOX!

why would you get so worked up? relax my dude, Sony is curb stomping MS and they're probably going third part by the end of next week.

Your favorite Corpo is winning

 

[Ar¢tos]

My post included this line: "Why start now?", which was a direct response to:



Calibrate your sarcasm detector dude. I was making fun of the fact that Microsoft bought all those games/ip while they were being made by other companies.

You really need to work on your ...reading comprehension...

It's what happens when you had a rough night and have been up for 15h. Still 3-4h to go before I can collapse on my bed.
Sorry!

 

[ShadowkillXNA]

It's what happens when you had a rough night and have been up for 15h. Still 3-4h to go before I can collapse on my bed.
Sorry!

All good.

 

[CamHostage]

They are not a creative company. This isn’t even a diss. It’s just true. They aren’t a creative company and they lack soul

I dint think so either, but they're crafty in identifying trends and forming addictions.

Palworld offers nothing new in gaming (it essentially is UE Fortnite mechanics and Marketplace materials on a survival template but with some crazy combos of devices in the farming system and other smartly-exploited content concepts, with the "Pokémon parody" kicker to get you in the door... their other games can be even more shamelessly and traceability derivative) but it is designed knowing what it'd take to get players started and what hooks them to not stop.

And that can prove successful. Heck, that shameless but satisfying skill set had sometimes even led to prominent roles in that company leading a category or its industry, while the things they stepped on in their way up often stay where they were.