Palworld dev "hates" seeing the survival game pitted against Helldivers 2 "in pursuit of 2010 era 'console war' updoot farming"
"Think of all the time you could have been gaming instead of doing… this"
Palworld game designer and community manager 'Bucky' says it's "heartbreaking" to see Pocketpair's survival game being used in order to chase "2010 era 'console war' updoot farming," after recent social media posts began pitting it against Helldivers 2.
It was confirmed this week that Helldivers 2 – which is only playable on PC and PS5 – is officially Sony Interactive Entertainment's fastest-selling game of all time. With over 12 million units sold since its release in February, it's smashed through the record previously held by Santa Monica Studio's God of War Ragnarok, in what's no doubt an enormous achievement for Arrowhead Game Studios. However, on the back of this, some social media users began comparing Helldivers 2's success to that of Palworld's, which sold 15 million copies on Steam and accumulated 10 million players on Xbox in its first month, and even managed to become the second game to reach over two million concurrent players on Steam.
There's no denying that Palworld's success at launch was massive, but Bucky openly opposes the survival game being used to spur on the console wars. "I hate everything about this post and the replies on it," he writes, responding to one of the tweets comparing the two.
"Breaks my heart to see our name used in pursuit of 2010 era 'console war' updoot farming on Twitter. Heartbreaking. Think of all the time you could have been gaming instead of doing… this."
Palworld is still in early access, and is being continually updated with bug fixes, balance adjustments and more. At some point this year, we'll be able to dive into the Pal Arena, which was teased last month and will let players and their Pals take on others in a PvP setting, in what currently looks a bit like a gun-filled Palworld take on Pokemon Stadium. For now though, we've only seen a tiny snippet of footage, so we'll just have to wait and see what's in store.
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I'm one of GamesRadar+'s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.