Palworld Is Coming To Game Pass At Launch

thegamer.com:

Palworld, the open-world RPG that is often compared to Pokemon, is launching in early access on January 19, just next week. Now, it's been confirmed that it will also be available on Game Pass from this date, joining the subscription service as soon as it goes live on PC and Xbox.

This confirmation comes as Palworld developer Pocketpair lets us know exactly when we'll be able to play the game. It's set to go live on January 19 at midnight PST, being available to either buy or access via Game Pass on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Palworld has been a fascinating game to follow since its announcement. Given the design of its monsters - or Pals, as they're called in-game - the project was inevitably compared to Pokemon. Of course, the game is also much more violent, so it quickly became known as "Pokemon with guns". This label has stuck even now as we're in its launch window, so it remains to be seen if it can carve out a playerbase of its own.

In any case, the release date announcement trailer certainly won't do anything to shake the Pokemon comparisons. While the tone is clearly very different from what we'd get with the Nintendo RPG series, the character designs still look very reminiscent of the Pocket Monsters - even if we can gun them down. That said, the gameplay looks quite different, as we see the player ducking and rolling away from Pal attacks, then using a variety of their own abilities to take them down. So a little more action-orientated than Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which is probably the closest comparison we can make.

Palworld will launch in early access, and it's not clear how long we'll have to wait until the full release. Over on Steam, the developer says it will remain in early access for "at least