Palworld PvP is on the way, but like a lot of things in Pocketpair’s survival game, announcing that news wasn’t straightforward. Despite a teaser trailer stating a “summer 2024” release date, the Palworld dev has had to now stress it’s actually a more broad window of just “2024”. However, it has promised fans that a different “major” Palworld update will arrive in the summer instead, which features a wealth of new content for Xbox players.
While player counts are nowhere near the server-melting numbers they reached a few months back, Palworld is still one of the biggest and best Xbox games right now. Its master blend of elements from survival games, sprawling open-world games, and co-op games – alongside new content like its first ever raid boss – continues to keep players hooked. The recent reveal of Palworld’s Arena PvP mode has also generated lots of hype, with dynamic (and chaotic-looking) battles adding a proper competitive element to the game – no, this inaugural Palworld esports event doesn’t count.
The teaser trailer for Arena shows some very brief snippets of gameplay and suggests that you will face off against one other trainer with a team of three Pals (or at least, you can only have three Pals active on the field at any one time). At the end of the trailer, “summer 2024” is shown, but Pocketpair has quickly clarified that this was a “mistake”. Arena will actually arrive in one of the best Xbox Game Pass games at some time before the end of the year.
To make up for the confusion, Pocketpair reveals some early details about an alternative content drop that players will be able to enjoy soon instead.
“This summer, a major update that will add a new island with new species of Pals, new buildings, weapons, and more is scheduled to release. We hope you look forward to it!” the developer says in a social media post.
While my own Palworld addiction has eased off somewhat in recent weeks, I’m genuinely excited for both this summer update and PvP, especially, to arrive. Pocketpair has put in a lot of work making its dynamic, real-time combat a smoother and less-janky experience, and while there’s still work to be done, I think the mayhem of six pals and two trainers all duelling in an arena will be great fun. I’d like to hear more on how else Pocketpair is going to support the competitive aspect of Palworld – for example, will there be ranks or leaderboards? But for now, this initial teaser trailer is enough to get me invested.
For more on one of the wildest Xbox exclusives out there, check out why a Palworld PS5 port now seems very likely to arrive following recent comments from Pocketpair.
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