There are things that gamers have been waiting for years for: Half-Life 3, a PC port for Bloodborne or Hollow Knight: Silksong. If they were released or announced today, fans around the world would rejoice.
And then there are announcements where the most common reaction is a What?
This includes the announcement by Palworld developer Pocketpair that they are releasing a dating sim where you get to know the creatures from the survival game even better.
April Fool’s joke? I guess not
You are right to object that this message comes on April Fools’ Day of all days. So is this whole thing just a joke? If so, then the developers have put a lot of effort into it. Because exactly one year ago, they released the first trailer for
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But a year later, there is a second trailer. In addition, the developers have now also published a Steam page along with screenshots and character profiles. So is it getting serious after all?
The descriptions on Steam read… adventurously when it comes to your relationships with the Pals:
You’ll meet unique friends (Pals) and enjoy school life with friendships and romances. It’s up to you whether you and the Pals just stay friends, develop romantic relationships, or whether you dismember and eat them.
But that fits with the original Palworld, which is considered a much more wacky version of Pokemon with a lot of dark humor, where you can have your pals produce assault rifles on an assembly line or even eat them.
Fittingly, the dating sim’s trailer, which is accompanied by cheerful music, also features some worrying scenes, such as when a jealous Pal suddenly stands in front of you with a knife.
So it seems like dating Pals is going to be a reality. Unless Pocketpair has also hoodwinked Steam. There is no release date for the game yet, but maybe it will be released on April 1, 2026. Or maybe there will be a completely new announcement: how about a Palworld building game? A Palworld deck-building game? Or Palworld survival horror?
