At the recent Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) creator Brendan Greene addressed the Fornite Battle Royale craze that has swept the gaming world. “It’s great that the battle royale space is expanding and Fortnite is getting battle royale game mode in the hands of a lot more people,” he said.
Greene went on to say that when PUBG was first released last year, it steamrolled ahead of H1Z1. When H1Z1 went live in 2016, it surpassed Arma 3. "I never set out to kill any of those games," he told the crowd. "I don’t want have this attitude like ‘We’re better than them.’ We are all a relatively friendly group. We don’t have a real-life GDC battle royale."
Also at the GDC, the developers at PUBG revealed a new, smaller map. While few details are known, it will have a jungle theme and is about half the size of the other two maps currently available. While Erangel and Miramar both measure 8 km by 8 km, this new map will only be 4 km by 4 km. With players in much closer proximity to one another, this could open the door for PUBG to elevate their esports game.
PUBG has also released a new limited time Event Mode, which feature unique rules, content, and weapons. The first Event, which was available this past weekend, featured 8 person squads with players restricted to specific areas of the map.
According to market analyst NewZoo, more than 30% of PC gamers played a Battle Royale style game in February of 2018. PUBG was the 3rd most watched game on Twitch with Fortnite coming in 2nd. Though Fortnite is more popular globally, PUBG continues to dominate the gaming charts in Asia. Both games recently released mobile versions, available on iOS and Android.
