Summary
- Pocketpair expands into publishing with a horror game from Surgent Studios.
- Surgent Studios' upcoming horror game remains mysterious, described as "short and weird" by CEO Abubakar Salim.
Japanese company Pocketpair, the developer behind Palworld, has officially entered the publishing game and announced its new project, a horror game from Surgent Studios. Pocketpair has been around for a few years and had already established itself as a skillful developer with the early access release of Craftopia in 2020. But the studio really drew attention with Palworld, which launched on PC and Xbox in early 2024 and came to PlayStation 5 in September.
Despite the lawsuit Nintendo filed against Pocketpair in September over the similarities between Palworld’s Pals and Nintendo’s Pokemon, the company seems unphased. Perhaps this is because Nintendo is only asking for what amounts to about $65,000 USD, but Pocketpair recently revealed its ambitious roadmap for Palworld, which is still in early access despite being nearly a year old.
Palworld Reveals Early Access Roadmap
To celebrate its first anniversary, Palworld reveals some of its future early access plans via a roadmap shared for the game's community to see.
The Japanese studio isn’t stopping at developing incredibly successful monster-taming survival games, however. The company has dabbled in publishing before, with Never Grave: The Witch and the Curse, a Metroidvania currently in development by Frontside 180. But on January 23, the company simultaneously revealed the creation of Pocketpair Publishing and its first project, a horror game by Surgent Studios. As a reminder, Surgent is a film studio that joined the video game space in April 2024 with the release of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, an impressive debut that has been nominated for multiple awards.
Pocketpair Publishing’s First Stint Will Be a Horror Game
Unfortunately, little is known about this upcoming horror game. Abubakar Salim, studio founder and CEO and voice behind the titular Zau, has stated simply that it “will be short and weird.” It is unknown if it is separate from Project Uso, Surgent Studios’ sophomore endeavor that was revealed in October. Inspired by 1999’s classic Planescape: Torment, that title will be a single-player afro-gothic RPG featuring isometric graphics. However, Uso’s description of being “darker, edgier, and more visceral” does jive with it perhaps being a horror game.
This announcement comes just months after Surgent Studios put staff on notice about potential layoffs while it sought funding for its future projects. Hopefully, the collaboration with Pocketpair means that the studio’s financial outlook has improved, at least for the time being, and its employees can feel secure through the completion of Uso and this new horror game, if they are indeed separate projects. Despite Tales of Kenzera: Zau being considered by many to be one of the best Metroidvanias of 2024, it apparently didn’t bring in the numbers the developer was hoping for, as Surgent employees already faced a round of layoffs in July 2024.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 71 /100 Critics Rec: 58%
- Released
- January 19, 2024
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Violence
- Developer(s)
- Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Publisher(s)
- Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- Xbox Series X|S, pc
WHERE TO PLAY
- Cross Save
- yes
- Number of Players
- 1-4 (Co-Op); 32 Players Server Limit
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Shooter, Survival
- How Long To Beat
- 36 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 6 GB (February 2024)
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
