Yes, I think there are Pokemon with Guns plushies in your future.
Sony Music Entertainment, Aniplex, and Pocketpair announced a joint venture to license merchandise based on Pocketpair’s hit game Palworld.
The new venture, Palworld Entertainment, is meant to expand the breakout hit from video games to other new businesses.
Palworld is a multiplayer open world survival game created, produced and published by Japanese developer, Pocketpair. It became a breakout hit of 2024 when the total number of players surpassed 25 million after only one month in release. And it inspired jokes aplenty about how it was like Pokemon with Guns.
The Palworld game, currently available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and through Xbox Game Pass, seamlessly integrates elements of battle, monster-capturing, training, and base building.
Players are able to wield a range of weapons, from classic bows and spears to modern assault rifles and rocket launchers. The gameplay involves locating and capturing Pals, who in addition to assisting players in the construction and expansion of their base operations, can become powerful allies in combat.
The JV will be responsible for developing the reach of the intellectual property and for expanding commercial business endeavors, including the global licensing and merchandising activities associated with “Palworld,” outside of the interactive game.
JV efforts will begin with the development of exclusive merchandise based on the game – which will debut and sell at the Pocketpair booth during “Bilibili World 2024” (beginning Friday, July 12, 2024 in Shanghai, China) and be made available for pre-order at Aniplex and its subsidiaries, Aniplex of America and Aniplex Shanghai, e-commerce sites with more detailed information at a later date.
The companies said Palworld is a “completely new multiplayer open world survival craft game” where you collect mysterious creatures called Pals in a vast world, and have them fight, build, farm, and work in factories.