Palworld 1.0 launches July 10, leaving early access with World Tree, new Pals, and a cinematic trailer

Palworld is finally leaving early access on July 10, with Pocketpair making the announcement at Summer Game Fest alongside the game's first-ever cinematic trailer. The teaser carries an in-universe message — "Pal Tamers, the time has come! A strange energy is coming from the World Tree" — pointing squarely at the landmark that's been looming over the map since launch.

Version 1.0 brings new Pals, new areas, mechanic overhauls, and the long-awaited World Tree region, which is tied to the game's ending scenario. Pocketpair's head of publishing and communications John "Bucky" Buckley confirmed on X that the update will add more new Pals than any single update before it — one of them, a jester-like creature called Dupin, has already been shown off. Full specifics on what's changing haven't been detailed yet, but Buckley says more information will surface over the coming weeks.

On the question of save data, Buckley was direct on Discord: "You do NOT need to wipe your data for Palworld 1.0. But you should." Existing saves will carry over because Pocketpair wants to respect the time players have invested, but the studio believes starting fresh will give the best experience given the scale of changes. The World Tree itself has been part of the plan for a long time — back in early 2025, Buckley told Eurogamer that the ending scenario "has been mapped out for quite some time" and that the studio was excited to finally open the area up.

The road to 1.0 hasn't been without turbulence. Nintendo sued Pocketpair in September 2024 over multiple patent infringements, and by December the studio had removed the Pokéball-style Pal Sphere summoning mechanic as a result. Despite that legal pressure, Palworld has remained one of the biggest survival-crafting games around, and July 10 looks set to be its largest content drop yet.