Fixed: Palworld “Prevented from Playing Multiplayer”

Palworld, the new multiplayer survival crafting game that blends elements of Pokémon and shooters, has exploded in popularity since its early access launch on January 19th, 2024.

However, many players have encountered issues trying to access the game’s multiplayer functionality. Lert’s see why players are being prevented from playing multiplayer in Palworld.

What isPalworld’s Multiplayer Issues?

Within hours of launch, Palworld garnered over 1.3 million concurrent players across all platforms, breaking into the top 3 highest concurrents in Steam history.

This immense traffic overwhelmed the game’s servers, causing major instability and outages of the Epic Online Services that handle multiplayer connectivity.

As a result, many players found themselves unable to play multiplayer, join servers and even retain their saved data. 

The developer Pocketpair has acknowledged over 50,000 user inquiries and bugs related to these multiplayer and connectivity issues. They have promised fixes are in the works.

Differences Between Platforms

Importantly, the multiplayer implementation differs significantly between the Steam and Xbox versions of Palworld:

Steam

• Supports dedicated servers with up to 32 players
• More frequent updates and feature parity with developer roadmap

Xbox

• No dedicated server support, limited to 4 player peer-to-peer multiplayer
• Updates and features delayed compared to Steam due to certification process

This means Xbox players are more limited in their ability to play multiplayer currently. Pocketpair has said the lack of dedicated servers is “unfortunately not up to us” on Xbox.

Quick Solution  for Xbox Users

If you’re playing on Xbox and receive the error message, the solution might be as simple as updating the game:

1. Return to the Xbox dashboard.
2. Press the options button and exit the game.
3. Navigate to the ‘My games & apps’ section.
4. Look for Palworld under the updates section.
5. If an update is available, start the download manually.
6. If no update is shown, select the option to check for updates.

After updating, try loading your previous save to see if the issue has been resolved.

How to Fix “Prevented from Playing Multiplayer” on Palworld

If the quick fix doesn’t work or you’re on a different platform, here are some general troubleshooting steps:

• Check Server Status: Visit the official server status page to see if there are any known issues or maintenance periods that could be affecting multiplayer functionality.
• Adjust Firewall Settings: Security software or firewalls can sometimes interfere with multiplayer connections. Try temporarily disabling them to see if that resolves the issue.
• Restart Your Device: A simple restart can often fix temporary glitches. If you’re on PC, consider running the game in admin mode after restarting.
• Reinstall Palworld: Corrupted game files can cause issues. Reinstalling the game might resolve these problems.
• Check Internet Connection: Ensure your internet connection is stable and that you have the appropriate NAT Type settings for multiplayer gaming.
• Wait for Updates: Since Palworldhas just released and within a few hours millions of players started playing, this might have had an adverse impact on the servers. Developers are continuously working on fixes. Keep an eye out for game updates that may address multiplayer issues.

Technical Analysis

From a technical perspective, several key factors underpin the multiplayer connectivity problems players are facing:

Server Capacity

The sheer popularity of Palworld on launch day overwhelmed the game servers. Supporting over 1.3 million concurrent players requires enormous server capacity that likely wasn’t adequately provisioned. This caused crashes, lag, and connectivity issues.

Scaling up servers rapidly is incredibly challenging, so these capacity problems may persist in the near term.

Client-Server Architecture

Palworld uses a client-server model – players connect to centralized servers that host the game world. This allows multiplayer coordination but is vulnerable to server outages.

If the servers go down, no one can play. This seems to be what happened at launch and continues to be an issue.

Peer-to-Peer Fallback

Dedicated servers enable large player counts, but aren’t the only way to handle multiplayer. Peer-to-peer networking has players directly connect to each other.

Palworld could potentially fallback to peer-to-peer if servers are struggling, but this seems absent currently in the game’s networking architecture.

Multiplatform Support

Maintaining feature parity and stable updates across PC and consoles is extremely challenging for online games.

As evidenced by the lack of dedicated servers on Xbox, platform limitations exist. Smoothing out these differences takes significant developer resources.

Outlook Going Forward

While Palworld’s enormous popularity caused significant growing pains for its multiplayer infrastructure, there is reason for optimism. Once server capacity stabilizes and platform differences are ironed out, the unique multiplayer survival experience Palworld offers should open up for players.

In the meantime, Pocketpair seems committed to resolving the major bugs and connectivity issues.

Only time will tell, but with the right fixes and optimizations Palworld may yet realize its full multiplayer potential. But major technical challenges around scale, architecture, and multiplatform support must first be overcome.

Conclusion

Palworld’s multiplayer connectivity has suffered massively from the game’s viral launch popularity. An unprepared backend infrastructure buckled under the intense traffic load. Players continue to face multiplayer bugs, crashes, and inability to play together.

However, the core premise of a Pokémon meets shooter survival crafting experience remains intriguing. Pocketpair faces an uphill battle on the technical side, but with diligence and care Palworld’s multiplayer has promise.

After a few days or weeks, it will emerge whether Palworld’s multiplayer can match its sky-high concept. But for now, many players remain frustrated and prevented from playing together in this ambitious fusion of game genres. Addressing vulnerabilities around scale, resiliency and multiplatform support present the next frontier on the long road ahead.