Pocketpair wants fans to know Palyworld, its new game popularly described as "Pokémon With Guns," is definitely not a scam.
The assurance is part of a frequently asked questions post put out by developer Pocketpair on the Steam page of their upcoming creature collecting survival game. The slightly unusual inclusion of this section in their FAQ comes in the wake of titles like The Day Before, which has created increased distrust between players and early access developers on Steam.
The question reads: "Is this game a scam? Or is it a money-making MMO or virtual currency game?" to which the developer answers: "It is not a scam and will definitely be released on January 19th. PalWorld is a typical Steam game, you buy it once and it is yours forever. While we may consider expansions after the full release, that is a conversation we will all have together, as a community, when the time comes!"
Pocketpair certainly isn't kidding that this is a frequently asked question either — when typing "Is Palworld" into Google, "Is Palworld a real game?" came up as one of the top suggestions, so clearly people are wondering if they can count on this creature collecting to deliver.
Though we won't be able to give our impressions of the game just yet, IGN can indeed confirm that several members of our team have access to and have been playing Palworld, which is a real game and not a scam. In fact, you can already watch our first 15 minutes with it right now:
For the full impressions of our review in progress, check back on IGN.com tomorrow (January 18) at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.
Travis Northup is a freelance writer at IGN.