Palia, the Animal Crossing-Valheim mash up, will be free-to-play

Animal Crossing and Valheim-like Palia will be entirely free to play when it launches on PC.

Yesterday, Palia developer Singularity 6 released a lengthy blog post, detailing exactly why the forthcoming game would be free-to-play. The post, penned by Singularity 6's business lead, revealed that Palia wouldn't just be without a price tag at launch, but it'd also be incorporation certain free-to-play elements into its design.

Namely, Palia will monetize cosmetic items when it launches. Although this might sound alarm bells ringing in the heads of some players, Singularity 6 assures players this is where monetization begins and ends in Palia. In other words, the developer will never charge players for game-progressing items, and you won't be able to purchase loot boxes.

What's more, you can't buy the things you can earn, and you can't earn the things you can buy. There's a very clear dividing line between the things you can and can't purchase in Palia, and the things that do and don't have any effect whatsoever on the actual minute-to-minute gameplay. Palia will also put all available items for sale at once, so it won't revolve around a constantly-rotating storefront with differing items and cosmetics.

If you're unfamiliar with Palia, it's basically a mash up of Animal Crossing and Valheim, within the housing of a vast MMO. When we spoke to the development team in our Palia interview last year, they teased a main story that would potentially take years to reveal, and also cited The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Studio Ghibli as direct influences. All things considered, Palia's one game keeping an eye on over the coming year.

Check out our guide to the best games like Animal Crossing if you're looking for another adorable sim world to get lost in.