Palworld Announces First Major Expansion With New Island, Pals, And More!

PocketPair announced the first major expansion for its monster taming, survival game Palworld that would include a brand new island, new pals, and more content during the Summer Game Fest.

The massive patch for the game will be arriving on June 27, 2024, and is known as the Sakurajima update. It will add a higher level cap, new Pals, a new raid, a new faction and boss, and a whole new island region.

Major Palworld Update

Palworld Announces First Major Expansion With New Island, Pals, And More! — Palworld announces major expansion during Summer Game Fest, teasing new island, Pals, and many more content.
(Photo : Pocketpair / Screenshot taken from Steam)

With what has been announced so far, it seems that the Saurajima update will be somewhat of a game-changer, especially for longtime fans who have already spent a lot of time in the endgame.

Players have been given a glimpse of a distinctly Japanese theme on the new island that features cherry blossoms, a bathhouse-looking structure, and brand-new architecture and nature that point towards that theme.

Of course, the new island would not be complete without new Pals for players to catch and fight with, and includes new subspecies of existing Pals. There are also new buildings and a new stronghold known as the Oil Rig, according to IGN.

Additionally, the update will bring Xbox-dedicated servers, which is something that Palworld had conspicuously lacked up to this point. Some of the new Pals also harken back to Palworld's heavy Pokemon inspirations, with some looking like classic Nintendo creatures.

Since the game's early access release earlier this year, Palworld has received a constant wave of updates, adding things such as raid battles and new Pals. PocketPair previously revealed back in April that the Arena Pal PvP will be coming to the game in a future update.

The new island will also feature a mushroom-laden swamp as well as a scary graveyard that could possibly hint at other new Pals that have not been shown yet. In other parts of the update, it removes some building restrictions.

A Ton of New Content

These include giving players a higher maximum number of bases, and new structures such as pillars, glass structures, and workstations. The new Oil Rig is heavily defended by a poacher group that you will have to face to clear the area, said Polygon.

The Sakurajima update also lets players engage in large-scale battles to fight for various rewards such as the new resource, Crude Oil. The latest announcement comes after PocketPair released a thorough roadmap for PvP and Raid Bosses soon after it was launched.

The first raid that was added to the game was one that featured Bellanoir in April and the Pal was described as a "powerful and evil" creature who laid siege to the Palpagos Islands. When the game was first released, it immediately became extremely popular and broke a wide range of records.

It was reported that Palworld sold more than 1 million copies just eight hours after it was released. Later on, the game then peaked at around 2 million concurrent players on Steam.

This let it surpass other highly popular titles such as Counter-Strike 2, which is not an easy thing to do given the latter's history, according to Insider Gaming.