Pocketpair’s publishing and communications lead John “Bucky” Buckley has explained why Palworld continues to pursue unusual crossover partnerships while turning down other potential collaborations.
Responding to criticism of the game’s Terraria collaboration, Buckley said Pocketpair has always prioritized having fun over building strict lore connections.
“I think the Terraria collab in Palworld was pretty great!”
Buckley wrote on X. He acknowledged that some players may prefer a more lore-focused approach, but said the studio has been open about its
“fun-first approach since day one.”
The comments came after criticism from creator TierZoo, who argued that Terraria’s presence in Palworld felt intrusive. Buckley’s response suggests Pocketpair sees crossovers primarily as opportunities to create entertaining combinations rather than preserve a tightly controlled fictional universe.
Buckley also revealed that the collaborations players see represent only a fraction of the opportunities Pocketpair has considered.
“If it really doesn’t make sense then obviously we would never go ahead with it,”
he said, adding that fans
“simply do not realize the sheer number of collabs we’ve rejected or scrapped for that reason.”
That approach helps explain Pocketpair’s existing crossover lineup. Palworld has worked with properties including Terraria, ULTRAKILL and Valheim, partnerships that bring characters, equipment or themes from very different games into its open-world survival framework. Pocketpair has previously said these collaborations are motivated partly by the developers’ own enthusiasm for the games involved.
The Tides of Terraria update, for example, added Terraria-themed content to Palworld, with Pocketpair officially describing it as a collaboration update.
| Platforms | Microsoft Windows |
|---|---|
| Developer | Pocketpair |
