Those looking for a job at Palworld developer Pocketpair will need to have some serious play history on Steam, while those with none won’t be considered at all.
In a post on X (translated via Automaton), Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe shared some insights into how the studio behind the hit monster-catching survival game hires new developers. He revealed that those looking to join the team are essentially required to play games on Steam.
ポケットペアはプランナーにはSteamのゲームのプレイ履歴のスクリーンショットを提出して貰っています。（そもそもSteam未プレイの人は書類選考通過しない）… https://t.co/maBTOxwS7s
— Takuro Mizobe | Palworld (@urokuta_ja) January 23, 2026
“In fact, if you don’t play games on Steam at all, you won’t make it past the resume screening stage,” Mizobe said.
While he said that players who have substantial playtime on other platforms like PlayStation 5 or Xbox are also encouraged to submit screenshots showing their playtime, if an applicant’s number of Steam games played is zero, their application won’t be considered out of principle.
“We want our colleagues to be playing indie games that are only available on Steam,” Mizobe said.
2026 is poised to be a big year for Palworld and Pocketpair. Palworld is gearing up for its full release 1.0 update later this year that will include a “massive amount of content.” The franchise is also set to enter the tabletop gaming space with an official Palworld card game this summer. Meanwhile, a Palworld spin-off, Palworld: Palfarm, is additionally in development.
In addition to developing Palword and its spin-off, Pocketpair is working on new games and now also publishes games on platforms like Steam. Pocketpair said it would not work with or publish games from developers who use AI or put a focus on Web3 or NFTs.
Despite the success of Palworld, Pocketpair is still in a legal battle with Nintendo, who is seeking “an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages” on the grounds that Palworld infringed on Nintendo patents. The ongoing lawsuit saw Pocketpair remove Pal Spheres from Palworld last year.
More recently, a Japanese patent office denied Nintendo’s patent on the mechanic of throwing an item to capture a character, even if a similar patent was granted in the US. That patent, however, is now being reexamined by the US Patent and Trademark Office.