The first Steam megahit of the year has been found: The Pokémon clone Palword can currently look forward to a sensational rush to the early access phase of the game. At the time of publication of the article, according to the SteamDB database almost 1.5 million players on the servers at the same time (!). Palworld is also available in the Microsoft Store and Game Pass, but the technical problems with the Steam version seem to be even more pronounced here.
These are also noticeable in a direct comparison between the respective version numbers, because a “newer” version is installed on Steam at almost any time, while the Microsoft versions still have to wait. Features such as the faster crafting system or renaming the Pals are completely missing here, as a listing on the Reddit platform explains.
The reason for this is due to Microsoft’s authentication process for such updates. Like community manager “Bucky” – who is currently handling this task alone – in official Discord server explained to Palworld, some of the patches and new features are still on hold at Microsoft. One of the hotfixes went live on Steam two days ago, while the same fix was submitted for Xbox at the same time and is still awaiting release. Accordingly, the Steam and Xbox versions will “never have the same build number until cross-play functionality is fully developed,” as Bucky explains.
Even in this case, the two Palworld editions could never be identical, as they are “two fundamentally different versions due to the different Xbox architecture.” A scenario on how the problems can be resolved is provided by the portal Windows Central brought into play: By being included in Game Pass, Palworld is a “de facto Microsoft exclusive game”. It would be conceivable here for improved support from Microsoft, which in return could share in Palworld’s surprising success by extending the “exclusivity”.
After all, developer PocketPair reported at nightthat the Xbox version and the version for the Microsoft Store have now received an update. This patch fixed numerous problems. However, this also creates new ones; There may be a button missing to end the game.