Will Xbox buy Palworld and Pocketpair? ‘There’s little doubt,’ says prediction

Palworld has been a massive success on Xbox. It has broken records on Game Pass and it has been a marvel on Microsoft’s console as well as PC where it is one of the top games of the year for most concurrent players. Because of its massive success, a prediction from Forbes says ‘There’s little doubt’ Xbox will try to buy Palworld and Pocketpair in the foreseeable future.

Originally dubbed ‘Pokémon with guns,’ no one predicted the astronomical rise of Palworld from day one of its early access launch. It sold seven million copies in just five days, and the latest update we have from Pocketpair is total sales surpassing 19 million. There has been a significant player drop on Xbox and Steam recently, but this is nothing to worry about as seen in a developer’s excellent response.

There’s no denying the monumental success of the game, and its future seems bright as the roadmap promises a lot more content leading up to the release of 1.0. Some mistakenly think the game is affiliated with Microsoft because it’s not on PS5, and, while that is simply not the case right now, Forbes predicts Xbox will try to buy Pocketpair soon.

Forbes predicts Xbox will try to buy Palworld and Pocketpair

Forbes says ‘There is little doubt Microsoft will try to buy Palworld and Pocketpair at this point‘. Before you sound the alarm bells and either get excited or throw a massive hissy fit, it’s important to point out that this is merely a prediction. Xbox has not shown or declared any intent to buy the Japanese studio.

Looking at it as merely a prediction, Forbes’ Paul Tassi says ‘I absolutely have to think that Microsoft is trying to buy Pocketpair, the developer of Palworld, and lock up that explosive hit of a franchise for themselves… to potentially release on other platforms, but as something they full own’.

Paul Tassi points out that Palworld on Game Pass means the Japanese developer and Microsoft have already previously cut a deal. No one could have predicted Palworld becoming the biggest 3rd party Game Pass launch ever, and this could potentially result in that Game Pass deal becoming something bigger.

Although Microsoft hasn’t shown any intent to buy Pocketpair, they have shown commitment and admiration for Palworld. Xbox is partnering with Palworld to bring PC-exclusive features to console, and Microsoft has recently used Palworld to show the future of Xbox games on multiple platforms and devices.

With all of the above taken into consideration, plus the rumors of Microsoft becoming a multi-platform juggernaut owning games and releasing on them PS5, Paul Tassi says ‘It does not seem like more than a hop, skip and a jump to Microsoft attempting to buy Pocketpair outright’.

In regard to how much Pocketpair and Palworld would cost, the valuation is difficult to estimate. 12 million copies sold on Xbox at $26 translates to $312 million in revenue for Pocketpair. And this Xbox revenue won’t dramatically increase as there’s no monetization in the game at all and it is available for free on Game Pass.

While the valuation is difficult to estimate, there’s no doubt Microsoft could afford Pocketpair if they wanted. They purchased Activision and Blizzard for $69 billion, Zenimax/Bethesda for $7.5 billion, and they got Minecraft’s Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014. As a $3 trillion company, Microsoft doesn’t have to worry about cost when it comes to buying anyone.

Again, this is merely a prediction on the part of Forbes and is not officially happening as of writing. For more Palworld news, the Pocketpair CEO has praised the developers for uber-realistic animations you may not have noticed, and a fan has shared an easy trick to complete dungeons in less than a minute.