Despite what some pundits on the internet have said, Palworld is still a very popular game. While its concurrent player counts haven’t come close to reaching the heights they had at launch, the game is receiving around 30–40k players on Steam alone each day. Palworld‘s time in the spotlight, however, hasn’t come without any controversies. At launch, the game was infamously criticized for its creature designs, which many believed were overly similar to those of Pokemon. Palworld‘s developer, Pocketpair, was also sued by Nintendo last year for supposedly infringing upon the company’s patent rights because the game’s capturing mechanic somewhat resembled the act of throwing Poke Balls in Pokemon.
Palworld is already packed with dozens of hours of content to uncover, but the current version of the game is technically incomplete, as it’s still in early access. Recently, however, Pocketpair confirmed that Palworld will get a full 1.0 launch on all platforms sometime in 2026. While there are still some surprises in store for the game later this year, the company warned players that Palworld will not receive a lot of major updates before its full release. This is completely understandable, but given that the Gen 10 Pokemon titles will likely come out in the same year as Palworld, this release strategy may end up being to the game’s detriment.
The Gen 10 Pokemon Games May Come Out the Same Year as Palworld's 1.0 Update
Game Freak hasn’t actually unveiled anything about the next generation of mainline Pokemon games yet, but a recent rumor has given fans an idea of when to expect some official news on the titles. CentroLeaks, a Twitter user who regularly posts leaks about the Pokemon series, claimed a few days ago that the Gen 10 Pokemon games will finally be revealed during the next Pokemon Presents event. The Pokemon Company usually hosts a Pokemon Presents on Pokemon Day every February, so this means that a proper announcement regarding Gen 10 may not be that far off.
Recent leaks suggest that the region of the next mainline Pokemon games is going to be inspired by Greece and that it will, therefore, be broken up into several different islands.
Game Freak Has Already Ended a Major Trend With the Gen 10 Pokemon Games
Game Freak tends to launch a new generation of Pokemon games once every three years. Pokemon Sword and Shield, for example, came out approximately three years after Pokemon Sun and Moon, while the more recent Pokemon Scarlet and Violet were released three years after Pokemon Sword and Shield. This year, however, the company decided to break this trend. Even though Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are almost three years old at this point, there are no mainline Pokemon games that will be released this year. The upcoming Pokemon Legends: Z-A is technically classified as a core series title, but it isn’t actually going to kick off a new Pokemon generation.
If They Launch Too Close to Each Other, the Next Mainline Pokemon Games Could Eat into Palworld's Success
Since the Gen 10 Pokemon games are taking longer than usual to be released, it seems likely that they’ll come out sometime next year. If so, then Palworld‘s 1.0 update may be launched very close to the next mainline Pokemon titles. While the two franchises are pretty different gameplay-wise, this could actually hamper the potential success of Palworld‘s upcoming launch. Given that the game isn’t going to receive many massive patches leading up to its full release, it will likely lose a considerable number of players in the coming months. When Palworld‘s 1.0 update is finally launched, though, some of those players will probably be too busy playing the Gen 10 Pokemon games to give it a fair shake.
Since They're Not Available on the Same Platforms, The Audiences for Palworld and Pokemon Aren't Completely the Same
Admittedly, it’s important to note that the next mainline Pokemon games will not be available on the same platforms as Palworld, so they may be targeting somewhat different audiences. While Game Freak’s Gen 10 Pokemon titles will probably be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2, Palworld is currently playable on every platform that isn’t a Nintendo console (aside from the PS4). Unless Pocketpair plans to release a Switch 2 port of Palworld next year, it, at the very least, won’t have to worry about the impact that the Gen 10 Pokemon games will have on those who exclusively play on Nintendo systems.