The offices that house Pocket Pair, the studio behind the world's biggest survival craft creature collectathon Palworld, were once partially used as poker chip storage.
Pocket Pair CEO Takuro Mizobe took to social media to announce he'd be holding a talk at his former university, Tokyo Institute of Technology, before sharing a random anecdote about his studio's early years.
In a recent tweet, Mizobe explained that when Pocket Pair was first founded, about 80% of the Ookayama-based team who worked on the studio's debut roguelike card game Overdungeon were also students at his university. "None of us had much experience in the industry, but we were able to create a game and release it on Steam," Mizobe continued, "so I encourage everyone to keep creating."
- Palworld dev reckons "very few companies could survive" a launch like theirs: "A lot of companies might crumble under the threats, under the pressure, under the negativity"
- "We hit this disgusting number that makes me feel sick": Palworld devs don't know why their survival game was so successful - "If we knew how to do it, we'd do it again"
Mizobe went on to say that after graduating, he "lent part of the Ookayama office" to a friend who then "used it as a poker chip storage area" - a random factoid about the history of a now-famous studio.
Pocket Pair made a somewhat dangerous gamble earlier this year when it released its Pokemon-with-guns survival game. But it paid off, becoming a record-breaking hit across Xbox and PC with millions of sales, while also prompting "Genshin Impact-level" clones that are both "incredible" and also have budgets "10 times larger" than the breakout indie.
Elsewhere, the Palworld developers have been teasing an upcoming update featuring the game's own take on Pokemon Stadium, which just means you can bring firearms into the gladiator PvP mode.
Find out about all Palworld flying mounts and how to catch them.
