Cozy MMO Palia has accrued a warm community, says Singularity 6

Singularity 6 announced today that its upcoming fantasy MMO, which is designed as a peaceful, welcoming world, has found its audience. Palia now has over 600,000 signups of players waiting to playtest the unreleased sim title, says the studio. According to Singularity 6’s founders, the popularity of Palia shows the player demand for a cozy game with a community spirit.

Palia is an MMO set in a fantasy world where humans disappeared and are coming back after thousands of years. Players can explore the world of Palia, befriend villagers, farm, build a home and partake of community events. Anyone familiar with games such as Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley will find the vibe familiar. The world evolves with the players, and the studio hopes that it will grow with them over a period of years.

Anthony Leung, Singularity 6’s CEO and co-founder, told GamesBeat, “The mission of the company is to deepen players’ lives by creating these alternate worlds, and something that we really want to bring to the community sim genre is a love letter — something that’s special to them, that they can live and play in for a long time. We’re hoping this game is something that can last for decades.”

According to the studio, the Palia Discord has over 100,000 members, while over 20,000 users played the game during alpha tests in 2022 and 2023. During one month-long alpha playtest, the players logged over 167,000 hours, with the most dedicated players putting in around 200 hours of time.

Comfortable alternate worlds

Leung and Aidan Karabaich, both former Riot Games developers, formed the studio in 2018. It first began raising money for its fantasy game in 2019, and it raised $30 million in 2021 after revealing Palia. The studio expanded, doubling in size after Palia’s announcement. The game is a new IP, without ties to any existing franchise, and the creators said that this helped them build a game that’s both cozy and intimate, while still fostering a communal spirit.

Karabaich, Singularity 6’s CCO and other co-founder, said in an interview, “It’s really freeing to be starting at the ground level. We want you to simultaneously have that sense of safety that is so important to a game feeling cozy, while still having those opportunities for deep community connections, which is one of the reasons we started working on Palia to begin with.”

Singularity 6 hasn’t yet shared any updates on the game’s full launch, with both Leung and Karabaich keeping mum on the future plans. Karabaich added, “It’s been amazing getting to see the early, first days of the community and how that’s been building … it’s been a great last couple of years.”