Palworld to Exit Early Access, Get Version 1.0 Release in 2026, Pocketpair Announces

Palworld will exit early access and will get a full version 1.0 release alongside a major update next year, developer Pocketpair announced Tuesday. The 1.0 update is currently in development and will be rolled out sometime in 2026. Pocketpair did not confirm a release date in its announcement, but outlined its plans for the game for the rest of 2025 and beyond in a new video.

Palworld 1.0 to Release in 2026

The Japanese studio released the open-world survival crafting game in early access in January 2024. Palworld has since received five major updates and a lawsuit from Nintendo over its alleged gameplay similarities to Pokémon titles. Over time, Pocketpair has added new features, quality-of-life improvements, and new Pals to Palworld, but to leave early access and get a full release, the game requires “cleanup”, the developer said in its announcement.

“It's no secret that Palworld has a lot of quirks and jank, Pocketpair's communications director and publishing manager, Bucky, said in the video announcement posted to YouTube on Tuesday, “and we want to take the time to properly address those before releasing the game.”

That “cleanup” process begins this year, Pocketpair said, with version 1.0 targeting a 2026 release. The developer said it would work on delivering the required improvements until full release and would thus maintain relative silence on its progress for the rest of 2025. Palworld's winter update, schedule for later this year, would not be as big as the previous one, Pocketpaid said.

“We hope out players understand that we're taking this extra time to improve the game overall,” Bucky said.

Pocketpair said it had a few surprises planned for the winter update this year ahead of the “massive” 1.0 update in 2026. The developer will share a sneak peek into Palworld 1.0 in the “very near future”.

Next Game and Publishing Endeavours

The company also shared an update on its publishing arm, Pocketpair Publishing, which was launched in January. The studio said it was working with developers around the world, with several projects in development at those teams. Pocketpair Publishing recently published Surgent Studio's horror title, Dead Take, on Steam.

Finally, Pocketpair also confirmed it had several smaller in-house teams working on ideas for the studio's next game, even though most of company's focus was on Palworld. The studio didn't share details, but said its next project would “stay true to our roots”.

Palworld launched on PC, Xbox, and Game Pass on January 19, 2024, and became a breakout hit despite attracting plagiarism accusations over some of its creature designs and gameplay mechanics that seemed to resemble games from the Pokémon franchise. In September 2024, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, alleging its survival game had infringed upon three patents.

In May 2025, Pocketpair said it was forced to make changes to Palworld after Nintendo's patent infringement lawsuit, which included significant alterations to gameplay features and mechanics. The studio called the changes “necessary” to prevent disruption of the game's development and distribution.

Despite controversy, Palworld has been a commercial success for Pocketpair. The game crossed 32 million players across Steam, Xbox, and PS5 in February 2025.