Palworld 1.0 promises scale but will not add Pal evolutions

Palworld 1.0 arrives next month and is set to be the game's biggest update yet, but players hoping for Pal evolutions will be disappointed.

Developer Pocketpair plans to end the game's early access on July 10, 2026 with a full release on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass. John 'Bucky' Buckley teased on the game's Discord, "1.0 is bigger in scale than any update we have ever released," but was decisive on evolutions: "Was never planned. Never cancelled. Not on hiatus. We aren't doing evolutions."

The piece notes it would be difficult to retroactively add evolutions when the rest of the experience wasn't designed or balanced with them in mind. There's also the tiny, tiny issue of The Pokemon Company's lawsuit against Pocketpair, which one legal expert reckons has "zero chance" of leaving Nintendo with anything other than chump change.

Pocketpair has promised "many many many new Pals", alongside a new region and a more fleshed out narrative for 1.0.

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