PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds hits 10 million sales

Xbox One port coming 2018

There hasn’t been a game as popular as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in quite some time. The indie darling, which is still in Early Access, has hit a new milestone of 10 million copies sold. I think at this point, the development team can do no wrong. If even the introduction of loot crates can’t stop the PUBG train, what will?

This milestone was highlighted by an invitational tournament held over the weekend with a bunch of various stats I don’t really care about. The bigger news is that the Xbox One version now has a clearer release date. If you assumed that the game wouldn’t be launching by the end of 2017, I’m sad to confirm your suspicions.

The PR email reads that PUBG is, “launching exclusively on Xbox One as part of the Xbox Game Preview program in late 2017, with the final version launching in early 2018 across the Xbox One family of devices.” I suppose it can’t be helped, what with the final PC version not even having a firm launch date.

I’m not sure how I personally feel about the game anymore. While I love the idea, the way in which changes to the game have been handled feels very devious to me. I don’t like microtransactions in anything, but blatantly lying about their eventual inclusion rubs me the wrong way. I also don’t know if  we’ll see regular updates like we have been when the final version launches.

Regardless of the fate of PUBG, you can’t deny that its going to shape the future of game development. For something to come out of nowhere and take the industry by storm is just so rare these days. Some other team is bound to try and repeat this success, which will probably lead to a deluge of crappy “Battle Royale” knock-offs. I can’t wait…