Pocketpair launches no-download game demo using Amazon GameLift Streams

Pocketpair’s flagship title, Palworld, is an open-world game in which players catch mysterious creatures called “Pals,” build bases, and battle bosses. Even before the 1.0 release, the game had already surpassed 40 million players in Early Access. Peak concurrent players on Steam reached 2.1 million in January 2024—the highest ever for a Japanese-made title and the second highest in the world at the time.

With the 1.0 release, Pocketpair reexamined its marketing strategy. Traditional game ads use trailers and visuals to spark interest, but the onus is on players to follow up with that interest by visiting a store page and downloading the full game or a demo.

Pocketpair discovered a new marketing opportunity to give players gameplay experience before they make a purchase by creating an Instant Play Demo. Powered by Amazon GameLift Streams—a service that streams games at up to 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second to any device with a browser—Instant Play Demos lets potential players experience the game directly in their browsers, with no download required. “The appeal of Palworld comes across far better when people actually catch Pals themselves than when we explain it in a video,” says Kazuya Igarashi, head of marketing at Pocketpair. “With Instant Play Demos powered by Amazon GameLift Streams, the ad itself can become the gateway to the game experience.”

In creating the demo, Pocketpair first focused on the marketing journey that users go through. In traditional game marketing, it’s common to use trailers to capture players’ interest and lead them to purchase the game or download a demo. Mobile games, on the other hand, often embed a short playable version of the game in their ads. Palworld’s Instant Play Demo offers a similar experience: Players can play the game in their browsers for 15 minutes, actually controlling the game as they explore a limited area. The demo is streamed to browsers using Amazon GameLift Streams, so Pocketpair didn’t need to set up any additional infrastructure to host the demo.

The team carefully curated the demo’s content. “We broke down what makes Palworld fun, pulled out the most engaging parts, and made them available for players to experience,” says Igarashi. “We also thought carefully about what emotions we wanted users to feel when they finished the playable demo and designed the content with those emotions in mind.” The team determined that the most exciting elements of Palworld are battles and catching Pals, so the demo focuses on those elements.

The Instant Play Demo campaign launched alongside the release of Palworld 1.0, reinforcing the company’s core strategy for bringing the game to players. Targeting players in North America, the campaign began with headliner ads on Twitch, followed by ad links on Reddit. “This initiative was very new, and AWS helped us a great deal on the technical side,” says Igarashi. “Making a new marketing format work as an actual campaign required our marketing, development, and infrastructure teams to work together, and we collaborated closely with the Amazon GameLift Streams team to make that happen.”

Pocketpair became the first company in Asia to adopt an Amazon GameLift Streams Instant Play Demo. Of the users who played the demo to the end, 37 percent clicked through to Palworld’s Steam store page. The company also reports that the demo received positive reactions on Reddit. “Ultimately, the best way to accurately convey a game’s appeal is to have people actually play it. In that sense, Instant Play Demos truly offer something new,” says Igarashi. “It’s a high-quality marketing touchpoint.”

Pocketpair sees value in using Instant Play Demos for upcoming titles and for major updates to existing games. Using Amazon GameLift Streams, the company can quickly develop and validate proofs of concept while keeping upfront investment to a minimum. “For many titles, it’s faster to have people actually play a new update than to explain what’s changed,” says Igarashi. “In those cases, Instant Play Demos can be a very effective option.” The company is also considering offering different demos for different audience segments—for example, a tutorial for new players and immediate access to updated content for existing players.