Palworld launches into 1.0 tomorrow after spending over two years in early access. Developer Pocketpair issued a warning to lapsed players: uninstall your mods before updating.
The studio didn't elaborate on specifics, but the message is clear. Mods installed during early access may break or cause crashes when the game updates to its full release version. Pocketpair has pushed multiple patches and balance changes throughout early access, and modded files often conflict with new code.
Palworld's journey to 1.0 has been turbulent. The creature-catching survival game became a cultural phenomenon after launch in January 2024, selling over 25 million copies and drawing comparisons to Pokemon and Ark: Survival Evolved. The game combines Pokemon-style creature collection with base building, farming, and first-person combat across Steam and Xbox Game Pass.
The path here included a lawsuit from Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, which alleged Palworld infringed on their intellectual property. Despite the legal pressure, Palworld continued development and the case appears to have stalled, with reports suggesting Nintendo would recover minimal damages even if victorious.
The modding community embraced Palworld early, creating everything from quality-of-life improvements to total overhauls. For players who stepped away months ago and loaded up the game with legacy mods still active, tomorrow's 1.0 patch could trigger problems.
Pocketpair's warning serves as a timely reminder for anyone returning to early access games before major version bumps. Clean installations matter. The safest approach involves booting the game fresh, letting it update fully, then re-evaluating which mods still work with the new build.
With 1.0 launching tomorrow, Pocketpair likely plans to stabilize the codebase and establish what they consider the official