By Sagar V. Mankar 
The creators of Palworld, one of 2024’s most successful games, are taking a bold step into publishing. Operating under their newly established label, PocketPair Publishing, the team has announced its first publishing project: a horror game developed by the indie studio Surgent Studios. This marks a significant expansion for the Palworld developer, who is now leveraging their success to support other indie creators in the gaming industry.
The announcement was made on X (formerly Twitter), where PocketPair Publishing revealed,
“Our first project as PocketPair Publishing will be supporting a brand-new horror game from Surgent Studios. We’re thrilled to work with a studio known for its originality and look forward to sharing more about this exciting collaboration soon!”
Surgent Studios has been going through challenging times following layoffs and funding struggles in 2024. Their sole release in 2024, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, struggled despite receiving positive reviews. Upon its release on April 23, the game peaked at only 287 concurrent players on Steam, which later dropped to below 100. According to VGInsights, the game has sold only 20,000 copies on Steam so far. Meanwhile, it is also available on Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation, so the numbers could be higher, but not enough to gain trust from the publishing side. Therefore, the partnership with PocketPair comes as a lifeline for the indie developer.
Abubakar Salim, founder of Surgent Studios, shared his excitement. “This is the energy I want to see driving games in 2025—developers lifting each other up, creating together, and pushing the industry forward.,” he said.
While details about the upcoming horror game remain under wraps, Salim emphasized that it will be a standalone title, separate from the Tales of Kenzera universe. “This game will be short, weird, and thought-provoking,” he added.
PocketPair’s move into publishing builds on the massive success of Palworld. Within a month, it has sold over 15 million copies on Steam and amassed 10 million players on Xbox, cementing its place as a breakout hit. Despite the ongoing legal battle with Nintendo over patent infringement, the developers aim to use their resources to support other studios through PocketPair Publishing.
Sources: PocketPair Publishing