Palworld countdown – here's when the dark Pokemon-like releases on Steam, Game Pass, and beyond

With Early Access only 24 hours away, the Palworld countdown is on. Curious when the dark Pokemon-like releases in your time zone? Read on. 

Since its reveal, Palworld has caught the eye as it's basically Pokemon with guns. I’m not talking about how Digimon incorporates the odd gun into a creature design either – here we’re talking about good ol’ pocket pals being gunned down with an AK-47 kind of deal. It's harrowing, but morbid curiosity reigns supreme. 

In this game, you can peacefully live alongside mysterious creatures known as Pals or risk your life to drive off a ruthless poaching syndicate," the developer says on Steam. "Pals can be used to fight, or they can be made to work on farms or factories. You can even sell them or eat them!"

Rough. Of course, that’s not all Palworld is. Here, you mainly have a legally distinct survival game where you brave the elements to explore dungeons and build – be it a cozy farm or aggressive industrialism through Pal-powered factories. As a Pokemon-like, you’ve also got creature catching and breeding. 

If that sounds like your kind of thing, you don’t have long to wait to play it. Here’s when Palworld unlocks in your time zone.

Palworld countdown

As the nifty Palworld countdown timer above attests, you don’t have long until the Pokemon-like survival game enters Early Access on Steam. There’s more to come, too, as developer Pocketpair plans to release a roadmap after launch detailing the year ahead. While it remains a mystery for now, we do know we’re getting more Pals.

Palworld release time

The Palworld release time is 12am PST / 3am EST/ 8am GMT on January 19 for Early Access. The survival game is coming to Game Pass for Xbox and PC, too, so you don’t have to spend a penny to play if you’re already subscribed. 

While the developer hasn’t revealed when Palworld will launch in full, we know that a content roadmap charting the year ahead is due. So it’s likely not anytime soon. 

Here are 10 games like Pokemon for the discerning trainer - that is, if you were wanting a creature catcher without guns.