We’ve all been figuratively holding our breaths to see what would happen with Palia after the last month of mess, and now the game is taking a few tentative steps forward – but maybe not the ones players might hope for.
Readers will recall that Palia studio Singularity 6 raised a whole lot of eyebrows by launching its very much beta product on Steam without actually labeling it as beta or early access; when called on it, the studio doubled down and handwaved the fact that it was misleading its own players on a major gaming platform. But that fiasco was quickly overshadowed by an even more disturbing bout of news, as then we learned a full 35% of the entire Palia team had been sacked, including some critical senior roles, including the marketing director, community lead, engineering director, QA manager, UI art lead, and so on.
The team has been relatively quiet since then, but it resurfaced today with a celebration of its alpha test, its first official website post since the layoffs. However, the celebration is basically just… a bundle you can buy.
“It’s been more than two years since we first opened the gates to Kilima Village and invited Palians to explore our whimsical world in our first public Alpha playtest,” S6 says. “As we reminisce the memories from that very first playtest, we wanted to commemorate the occasion with our discounted Alpha Anniversary Celebration Bundle that includes the iconic Voyager outfit!” The bundle also includes the Carved Canyon Outfit from the Buckaroo Bundle and the Nightshade Outfit from the Herbalist Bundle, for the discounted price of 2125 Palia coins through May 1st.
But of course, what players really needed to hear was confirmation that the game will soldier on with content and updates – and maybe even make it to a proper launch.
