PUBG Releases Version 1.0

With the exception of those that have been stranded on a deserted island for the entirety of 2017, most gamers have become very familiar with an entirely different island that has taken hold of the gaming industry, live streams, award ceremonies, Steam Charts, and Discord calls. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has been the center of attention since its early access release earlier this year in March. On December 20th 2017, players waited in anticipation as they watched Steam’s countdown timer tick down to zero for the game’s official PC release.

While in early access, PUBG broke multiple Steam Chart records for active and registered players. Over twenty-four million sales has raised PUBG to the pinnacle of the battle royale subgenre. This rise has shaken and stirred the gaming climate in multiple ways, and its release solidifies those changes. Battle royale games that came before, like DayZ and H1Z1: King of the Kill, have experienced a considerable decline in player activity in the course of PUBG’s ascension. However, other games have begun developing in reaction to the growing popularity of the battle royale subgenre, like Fortnite: Battle Royale and Islands of Nyne.

Upon its official release, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds ensured that this would not be a mere formality. A brand new desert-themed map previously available only on the test server has also been put into the game for players to explore and make explosive, bloody memories in. Developers have also enacted massive patches of bug-fixes just preceding the release, and have been cited as saying that attention to cheating, glitch exploitation, and negative interaction with the game is going to receive an even more watchful eye now that the game is officially in circulation. Players will also be gifted a free cosmetic – a “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” shirt – just for logging into the game within the next couple weeks.

With Bluehole, the game’s developer, ready to call their lucrative creation a finished game, there is much to consider: What will the future be like for battle royale games? How will the development and playerbase of PUBG shift as a result? As the cliché goes, only time will tell. For now, gamers can gleefully drop at Pochinki until the circle closes in on some answers.