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The story
The official X (formerly Twitter) account for Palworld, run by Pocketpair, caused a stir on November 12, 2026 by posting: “If we don’t give everyone time off for GTA6, there’s going to be a riot in the office — so Pocketpair is taking next week off, five days straight.” On 5ch, the announcement sparked a wide-ranging debate: some noted that Nintendo never makes announcements like this, others compared it to how overseas game companies handle launch-day time off, and the thread spiraled into arguments over Palworld vs. Pokémon sales and even a tangent about OpenAI’s CEO reportedly taking time off for the Ocarina of Time remake.
Palworld official @Palworld_JP (2026/11/12 22:00:19)
If we don’t give everyone time off for GTA6, there’s going to be a riot in the office — so Pocketpair is taking next week off, five days straight
GTA6 time-off policy makes the news
Source: x.com / Original post here
What people said
Foreigners' taste really is baffling.
It's a Japanese company, grandpa.
People were saying the same thing back when Tears of the Kingdom came out.
That's because the only people working there are part-timers, NEETs, and hikikomori.
Was it Monster Hunter?
Are their games even actually selling?
Palworld.
Ah, I guess that explains how something like Palworld came to exist.
GTA's gonna bury Zelda,
now that's a legendary game for the history books.
Meanwhile there wasn't a single bit of that for Ocarina of Time lol.
So basically everyone who plays GTA
is a bunch of social misfits, huh.
Taking time off work for a game—
isn't that embarrassing for a grown adult?
Bet you'd be defending it if it were a Nintendo game lol.
Makes zero sense, lmao.
Lol, some seriously big name took time off for Zelda.
But wasn't the whole premise that literally nobody takes time off for Zelda? 😭
Someone way bigger than this nobody took time off for Ocarina of Time too, lmao.
What are we even doing in this thread lol.
"Pocketpair's taking a break!" (lol) is a pretty weak comeback to that.
You're literally the only one who uses that term. Is it fun to type though?
No joke, I genuinely have no idea where it's actually selling.
I know an American guy, and he said Palworld's fun.
The full release hasn't sold at all.
Meanwhile Pokémon just kept on selling the whole time.
"Anything before the full release doesn't count," huh.
Well, I get that it stings, but still.
No, it's just that it's clearly not a threat to Pokémon.
I don't care if it sells 100 million copies from here on out—at the end of the day it's a mediocre game with a Metascore in the 70s.
As for Nintendo, I think the worry is premature.
Even bringing up full-release concurrent numbers doesn't mean much when it couldn't even crack the NPD top 10—that's just a loud corner of the market talking.
"The market" → more like "a small slice of it."
Well, for a game whose whole pitch is "what else would you even buy," missing a million domestically and barely beating Pokoa's first-week numbers is pretty shocking though.
I'm sure it's already comfortably past a million lol.
You're straining way too hard to invent "victory conditions" lol. Just admit you're salty, it'd be a lot easier lol.
Background and key points of this discussion
It’s common for overseas game companies to encourage staff to take paid leave around a major game’s release, but this time Pocketpair got ahead of the story by announcing it themselves on official X. The thread split between those who framed Nintendo’s lack of similar announcements as a “cultural difference” and those who dismissed the whole thing as a cold publicity stunt. On the sales-comparison front, specific figures like NPD rankings and Metascores came up, but these were all anonymous claims made within the thread, not figures backed by any official announcement or primary source. Palworld’s sales numbers since its full release haven’t been made public either, so it’s worth noting that the thread’s sales debate never really rises above speculation.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Gehan)) thread “Palworld operator Pocketpair introduces GTA6 time off to prevent an in-house riot.”
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