Palia has just been introduced and aims to highlight the cozy aspects of an MMO. The game has now received a significant financial boost.
What is Palia? Palia was presented in early June as a relaxed MMO that focuses more on social interaction than on action. Behind the game is Singularity 6 – a developer studio, made up of veterans from Blizzard, Riot Games, and Zynga.
Gameplay is said to be reminiscent of simulation-oriented games like Animal Crossing and The Sims – and the approach has apparently been well received.
New funding for Palia: In a funding round that should take the game to the next level, the developers raised 30 million dollars (approximately 25.3 million euros) in funding.
This money is intended to advance the development and launch of the game. CEO Anthony Leung explained that they knew they would need a smaller portion of funding to finance the expansion to multiple platforms.
However, it seems that it became quite competitive among the investors – and the funding grew: “It was pushed beyond our expectations. We are definitely using it to make a great game” (via VentureBeat).
However, it is not the first time that Palia has secured a million-dollar investment.
This is what the plan looks like for Palia
How is Palia doing right now? With the new funding, the team behind Palia aims to elevate the game to the next level. The studio has also grown: Where there were still 10 employees in August 2019, Singularity 6 has now grown to 56 employees and is looking for more talent to continue developing the game.
However, one should not expect a release too soon: Currently, Palia is in a pre-alpha testing phase with small groups of players providing feedback to the developers. In this phase, they will likely remain for quite a while longer, according to Leung.
For the pre-alpha, you can currently still sign up on the homepage of Palia (via Palia.com). There is still no release timeframe available.
This is what defines Palia: The game might be something for you if you are looking for a relaxed MMO variant. Palia offers activities like housing, fishing, hunting, farming, and maintaining relationships and friendships with NPCs.
Competitive or combat elements are said to be rare. Palia primarily wants to create a warm, pleasant environment.
Interested in the game? A detailed presentation of Palia can be found here.
