Fans Mistook the Palworld: Side by Side Announcement for a New Game

Pocketpair recently announced Palworld: Side by Side, and thanks to the big name and mysterious teaser, plenty of players decided the studio was preparing a new game or spinoff. However, the developers quickly shut that down and said Side by Side is just Palworld’s next update, version 1.1, arriving in winter 2026.

Pocketpair announced Side by Side on October 20. Along with the name, the studio released a teaser showing three dark silhouettes, the update’s logo, and the words “Winter 2026.” The silhouettes resemble Zoe, Auri, and Saya, the characters who took the top three spots in September’s poll of Palworld’s most popular characters.

Because of the big name and mysterious art, many fans took the announcement as the setup for a sequel or spinoff. Some players even jokingly started waiting for Palworld 2 with underwater biomes and terrain editing. But Pocketpair communications director John Buckley quickly cleared things up and said it’s just a new patch.

Palworld Side by Side is v1.1 by the way! I thought that was pretty clear but, it seems quite a few people thought it was a new game announcement. Anyway…it’s an update. For Palworld.

Later, in an interview Bucky clarified that 1.1 won’t be a massive update, though players will most likely enjoy it. He also hinted that there won’t be many new Pals, if any, since the team tries to add them thoughtfully.

There’s no exact release date or details about the new features yet. In the announcement itself, Pocketpair only hinted that to survive on Palpagos, you sometimes need to make new friends.

Palworld’s last big update was version 1.0, which brought the game out of early access on July 10, 2026. It added 72 new Pals, bringing the total to 287 creatures. It also introduced a new area, Sunreach, an archipelago of floating islands, along with ancient ruins, towers, and settlements across the map.