Developer Pocketpair has announced Palworld! More Than Just Pals, a dating simulation game set within its hugely popular monster-collecting universe. And no, this is not an April Fools' prank — not this time.
The team behind the 2024 Pokémon-inspired survival game revealed its plans to introduce romance into its lineup today, March 31. On almost any other day, fans would welcome the news enthusiastically. But since tomorrow marks April Fools' Day — a time when developers fill the internet with joke announcements and fake games — many fans are understandably skeptical about Palworld! More Than Just Pals.
Pocketpair wants to make one thing clear for the skeptics: Palworld! More Than Just Pals is an actual upcoming video game. The concept appears to have originated from last year’s April Fools' joke, where the studio announced More Than Just Pals as a fictional title just for laughs. Now it's officially in development and will launch on PC via Steam at a yet-to-be-revealed date.
Palworld! More Than Just Pals looks to be a bold new direction for Pocketpair's blockbuster universe. The game description promises that players can befriend and romance a cast of student Pals attending the Palagos Private Academy. Its official Steam page highlights characters like the “cute and mysterious” Katress and the “shy” Chillet, pulling many familiar creatures straight from Palworld’s existing roster.
“You, the protagonist, transfer into the prestigious Palagos Private Academy,” reads the official description from Pocketpair. “There, you'll meet a quirky group of friends — Pals — and experience student life through friendship, romance, and more. You decide whether to stay friends, pursue love, or even... dismember and eat them.”
This doesn't concern April Fools :)
— Bucky | Palworld (@Bucky_cm) March 31, 2025
Pocketpair celebrated Palworld’s first anniversary this past January and continues to support the game with new updates. Recent additions such as crossplay support, Blueprint upgrades, and a photo mode give players plenty to enjoy while they wait for the dating sim spinoff. As for a potential Nintendo Switch 2 version of Palworld, there's still some hope — but if that doesn’t happen, we can at least look forward to Palworld! More Than Just Pals possibly coming to the console in the future.
