Tencent forced to pull localised battle royale port

After two years of tentative work, while building a community of some 70 million players, publisher Tencent has been forced to close its Chinese release of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, following the title's? inability to gain approval from the government's State Administration of Press and Publication.

Since 2017, a localised "test build" of the battle royale title has been in development, which includes various changes to the game's aesthetics and violent content, necessary for the title to be approved for release. Ultimately, the problem came down to in-app purchases, which the government would not approve, given PUBG's war-based content.

In a bizarre twist however, Tencent has replaced PUBG with an all-new patriotic title, Game for Peace, which the publisher states "pays tribute to the blue sky warriors that guard our country’s airspace," referencing China's air force. Amusingly, Game for Peace is reportedly PUBG in almost every single way, and previous PUBG players have found their accounts - even their? in?-game stats - automatically transferred to the new title.

"It's almost exactly the same," noted IHS Games analyst Cui Chenyu. "The gameplay, the background, the graphic design and the characters, they’re almost the same." Incidentally, Game for Peace has found approval for monetisation from the govern?ment.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is available now on PS4, PC, Xbox On??e and mobile devices.

Tencent pulls PUBG?? in China, launches patriotic alternative [Reuters]

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New stability issues arose from the campaign

A few months back, PUBG Corp announced a bug fix campaign called "Fix PUBG." The goal was to identify problems with the once popular PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and fix them in a timely manner. If you've played PUBG recently, ??you'll know first hand that the campaign hasn't done well. There are still issues with desync and stability and while t?he game is in a much better place than last year, it is still a far cry from what you'd call a finished product.

Oddly enough, the "Fix PUBG" campaign is wrapping up now because of "several new stability issues that arose apart from FIX PUBG.'" You can't make this stuff up. An initiative to improve a game has resulted in brand ne?w issu??es for the game. Just let that info sink in.

Still, not everything is horrible. PUBG Corp has outlined a lot of the tweaks that have come to PUBG since August and the resu??lts do show improvement. Average framerates are higher than months ago, server response time has been lowered and matchmak??ing has been hastened, getting players into games quicker.

Sadly, anti-cheat methods aren't really touched upon. The Steam community post mostly reiterates that hackers have been arrested and that fighting this battle is going to be never-ending. More information will be coming in the future, but cheaters, griefers and hackers are still PUBG's biggest problem and it sucks to not have any concrete information on?? what is happening.

The post ends with a promise from PUBG's executive producer Taeseok Jang: "Build stability and quality are now our most important value, and upon that base, we will build new Battle Royale gameplay and new content...While we cannot say how long this will take, we promise you that we will?? give our best efforts to reach this stage as quickly as possible." For a lot of players, that isn't going to be enough. I honestly can't blame them.

Dev Letter: FIX PUBG Campaign [Steam Community]

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Damaged

Coming completely out of left field, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will be getting some Suicide Squad DLC costumes soon. Players will be able to dress their characters up as either Jared Leto's Joker or Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and kill a bunch of other players online. Why you'd want to be reminded that Suicide Squad exists is beyond me, but this is the world we live in ?now.

All that trailer really does is make me question why there isn't some kind of single-player component to PUBG. There are three rather big maps to the game and a whole bunch of randomly placed buildings, yet no kind of world-building or any lore attached. Maybe providing some context for the ridiculous 100-man battles might work to distract people from the various bugs, glitches, and cheaters that st????ill populate this once bright game.

Even if those fixes are still coming, why is there a promotion for Suicide Squad now of all times? The film released in August of 2016, so it's not like the DCEU is benefitting from this sort of cross-brand promotion. It also isn't even competing with Fortnite's Thanos event from ea??rlier this year. This just seems random f??or the sake of being random.

Whatever the reason, these skins will be coming to PUBG soon. Hooray...

PUBG [Twitter]

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CRITICAL ERROR

This weekend was to see the launch of a new PUBG event mode called "Platoon." Taking inspiration from Fortnite's 50v50 mode, the game would see five squads of 10 people per team du??eling on Erangel (the game's original map) for supremacy. At the last minute, PUBG Corp announced that the event had b?een canceled due to a "critical error."

In a Tweet put out by PUBG Corp, it turns out the mode won't be shifting into play next week either. While it doesn't seem like Platoon has been outright canceled, players hoping for something new to do with PUBG will have to get their fix elsewhere. The timing couldn't have been worse for this to happen, what with an apology beanie going out to players for PUBG still being broken.

I guess Blackout will have to do!

Event Mode: Platoon (50 vs 50) [Steam Community]

PUBG Help [Twitter]

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No more early access excuses

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will finally be leaving early access on Xbox One next month. Landing on September 4, 2018, the 1.0 release will not only see general performance improvements but will bring the "Sanhok" map to consoles for the first time. The popular "War" and "Team Deathmatch" modes from the PC version will also be available in the 1.0 Xbox One release, along ?with the achievement list from the game preview version migrating over (so you won't lose your progress)

Anyone that buys the physical launch version will receive free Xbox themed pieces of clothing and equipment. Those bonuses will be available for a limited time to owners of the digital release. If that wasn't enough, an in-game currency will finally make its debut to wring more money out of you. This will allow you to p??urchase cosmetic items and the ridiculous "Event Pass" if you need micro goals to maintain your interest.

If you're a massive fan of PUBG and want to show your love for the game, a new Xbox One gamepad with PUBG branding will be available. Up for pre-order now with an October 30 release date, the controller is going for $70 and has a digital camo theme. It looks nifty and isn't too ove?rpriced, so it could be a n??ice way to replace any aging gamepads.

PUBG Leaving Xbox One Game ?P?review, Release Date Announced – Gamescom 2018 [IGN]

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Smaller world. Bigger battles

After months of beta testing, PUBG's third map will finally be going live on regular servers. Called "Sanhok", the map will be a much smaller take on the sub-genre that PUBG popularized last year. The reduced size should make for shorter, mo?re intense matches that keep the action going instead of boilin??g down to prolonged waiting games.

An update over on the Steam community forum is also promising performance updates to the game. Curiously, one of the highlighted features is a graphic for the "PUBG Global Invitational," which I'm pretty sure won't make the game run any better.  There is also a playlist selector that can limit the map to only the new one, ?though you can do that with the map toggle anyway.

I haven't played PUBG in quite some time, but I am eager to try out this new map. It looks like a great change of pace for the title and something that could potentially garner more interest next to Fortnite's faster matches. Hopefully, those performance updates pan out, because PUBG is in dire need of some optimization.

PC 1.0 Update #15 [Steam Community]

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'Oversimplified tales'

For a while now, there have been claims from fans that the maps in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds are basically asset flips. To quickly get th?e uninformed up to speed, asset flips are when a developer buys things like character models or buildin??gs from an engine storefront (such as Unreal or Unity) and plunks them into their game without a thought. This has even lead to wholesale reuploads of engine demos on Steam, which is an entirely different can of worms I won't get into.

Anyway, intrepid fans have dug around on the Unreal store and found asset packs that look strikingly similar to specific areas of PUBG's maps. This is where those claims are stemming from, but developer PUBG Corp has now set the record straight. In a post on the PUBG subreddit, PUBG Corp's communications lead Ryan Rigney explained the design process? for each map in the game world and how some assets were purchased while others have been created from scratch.

"The first thing to understand," Rigney begins, "is th??at if you’re just starting up a team, you’ve got to lean on asset store work because that's the only way you can spin up a game fast, and for a reasonable price, to quickly find the fun. Hiring an art team of 40 people to 'try a game' and 'see if it's fun' is simply not a smart way to work—this is what the asset store is for! It’s a great resource for teams that want to work smart."

He then goes on to detail how the first map, Erangel, is a combination of in-house work from PUBG Corp's Korea HQ, assets purchased from the Unr??eal store and even work done by an outsourced team in the US. The work done by that outside team was so well received that PUBG Corp even decided to create a studio in Wisconsin dedicated solely to art. With this new studio, the second map (Miramar) came to pass.

"As our in-house art teams built Miramar," Rigney continues, "they began t??o rely less on store-bought assets, although they continued to use them strategically because it just doesn’t make sense to build everything in the game world yourself?." One of the lead artists, a man named Dave, is quoted as saying, "Why should one of my artists spend two weeks on a generic sculpt if they could instead spend that two weeks adding real value for players elsewhere? How many times should a telephone booth be modeled?"

The post then ends with a statement that each map will continue to use less and less store-bought assets, but that the practice is essential in focusing on more important issues. Rigney even calls the whole debate an "oversimplified tale," which I agree with. I can definitely see the logic in not reinventing the wheel. When the general art style of PUBG is "realism," there is only so much ??you can do to differentiate yourself from the pack.

Maps aren't even the biggest problem that PUBG has. There is still that whole issue of cheaters, though that will likely never be com??pletely solved.

Brendan Greene Wants to kill me [Reddit]

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There can only be one...

Nearly a year ago, PUBG Corp. had claimed that Epic Games' Fortnite was a "carbon copy" of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. As preposterous as that claim may have been, PUBG Corp. is now looking to take legal action against its number one competitor for copyright infringement.  PUBG Corp. is asking the courts to determine if Fortnite had copied Battlegrounds. The news comes from The Korea Times, wh?o has reported that an official from PUBG Corp. had stated, "We filed the su??it to protect our copyright in January."

The claim, specifically, is going against Epic Games Korea, which is preparing to launch a version of Fortnite into East Asia in cooperation with Neowiz Ga??mes (developer and publisher of a popular MMO in the region). Personally, this sounds like an attempt to cut off Epic Games' expansion into Korea, but I can't say one way or the other.

PUBG takes US game firm to court [The Korea Times]

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Now it's not gambling!

Along with good old-fashioned microtransactions, PUBG has allowed players to trade items between each other. This was a way fo??r friends to h?and over some of the more ludicrously expensive items to their buddies without asking them to shell out a couple of Benjamins. The feature has now been suspended since it turns out that was leading to some "shady" behavior.

In a post over on the Steam community, PUBG Corp has noted that a number of individuals were taking to third party trading sites to sell items that circumvented the Steam marketplace. By adding a friend and then using the personal trade option, they were cutting out the profit that Valve and PUBG Corp would get from selling directly on Steam. While I'm not sure if this is in violation of the EULA for PUBG, it is something the developer does??n't want happening anymore. The feature will be coming back once PUBG Corp figures out ??a better solution.

I honestly didn't know this feature even existed, but I don't really see the harm in people cutting out the middle man. This is the same kind of stuff that happens with any market, digital or not. If people want a product and don't want to go through official channels, it is their right to decide to do so. You can buy a used car, for instance, directly from a seller instead of needing to go to a dealership. Maybe I would care more if PUBG wasn't still rid?dled with cheaters?? and bugs, but I guess we just can't change some facts.

Temporarily Turning Off Personal Item Trades [Steam Community]

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Over five million dollars in fines handed out

Over on the official Steam page for Battle Royale pioneer PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, a community update reports that arrests have been made as part of developer Bluehole's continuing? efforts to crack down on in-game hacking and/or cheating.

In the statement, PUBG Corp reiterate their ongoing promise to impose severe penalities to groups who create unauthorised coding tools and hacking programs for the popular MMO shooter, going as far as to name some of the fifteen suspects ?who h??ave recently been arrested and fined for doing so.

"15 major suspects including 'OMG', 'FL', '火狐', '须弥' and '炎黄' were arrested for developing hack programs, hosting marketplaces for hack programs, and brokering transactions". reads a statement from local investigative authorities. "Currently the suspects have been fined approximately 30mil RNB ($5.1mil USD). Other suspects related to this case are still being investigated".

That's a lot of moolah to pay up for enabling players to win rounds in a video game. No doubt Bluehole, Microsoft and all other parties invested in PUBG's success are hoping that these serious repercussions will prevent?? further groups from creating and selling their own game-bre??aking software.

PUBG Corp goes on to state that, more often than not, cheat software comes loaded with Trojans and other viruses, and encourages the PUBG community not to down?load any unofficial programs related to the game. You can read the full statement at the link below.

PUBG Update on anti-cheating efforts [Steam]

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Feel good getting out of the rain

While the PC version of PUBG is expecting a third map, Xbox One player's have been stuck with the original since the launch late last year. While originally touted as coming in May, console playe??rs will finally get the chance to ex??perience Miramar as early as tomorrow thanks to the test servers.

Similar to how the PC version of PUBG functions, Xbox One gamers will need to download a test server build of the game that will give them access to the work-in-progress map. Anyone that owns PUBG should find this version of the game i?n their download list starting at 12 am on April 24th for their local timezone. After that, the new map will be available during specific periods on each day (listed below).

U.S. (PDT) SCHEDULE

• 4/25, 4/2??6, 4/27: Servers available 5??pm PDT through 11pm PDT
• ?4/28 & 4?/29: Servers available 11am PDT through 11pm PDT

EUROPE (CEST) SCHEDULE

• ??4/26, 4/27, 4/28: Servers avai?lable 2am CEST through 8am CEST
• 4/28 & 4/29: Servers available 8pm CES??T through 8am CEST

PUBG Corp will also be giving special goodies to the first 150 players that ??report any bugs. I'm sure you won't need to look far to find any.

Miramar Map Coming to Xbox Test Server April 24 [Play Battlegrounds]

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Goodbye, Miramar!

When PUBG introduced a new map, one of the first requests from players was some sort of ability to toggle whethe??r they wanted to play on it or not. This was such a seemingly simple addition that it is kind of mind boggling why it has taken so long. Finally, though, a map toggle selector will soon be coming to the popular battle royale game.

As the Steam community forum update explains, the reason for the delay in the update was down to matchmaking. "We wanted to make sure that we could create a solution that worked for every region&??rsquo;s players, even the ones with a naturally low server population." I'm not sure I buy that, especially with 30 million people owning the game, but?? at least the feature is finally a reality.

After a short stint on th??e test servers to fully gauge how this impacts matchmaking, the feature will be implemented into the main game for everyone. I can't wait for Miramar to become a wasteland; I might be able to ?rack up more wins on it!

PLAYBATTLEGROUNDS [Twitter]

Introducing Map Selection [Steam Community]

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Codename: Savage

The recently teased tropical island map for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will be available on the test servers next week. Going by the title of "Codename: Savage," the map will be a generally smaller take? on the battle royale subgenre than what players are currently accustomed to. This was all revealed at GDC today along with a bunch of?? screenshots of the new island.

The testing window for this new map will begin on April 2 (7:00 pm PDT) and run until April 5 (4:00 am PDT). I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to the super janky test servers, but I'm very intrigued to see where PUBG will go in the wake of Fortnite's success.

Codename: Savage Map Testing Is Coming [Steam Community]

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Now grab your turquoise Tommy-gun and get out there

A new update has parachuted into survival-shooter PlayerUnknown's Batttlegrounds, bringing ??with it a huge array of new weapon skins, perfect for garishly dressing-up your arsenal and sticking out like a sore thumb.

Some skins can be found for free in Raid?er Crates, while others be obtained through the paid weekly Triumph Crates. The new skins have a varying drop-rate between the two types of boxes. Once you've bagged yourself a skin or two, you can apply it via the Weapons menu in the Customisation screen.

Developer PUBG Corp. has also acknowledged recent calls to region-lock servers, which many players believe will isolate areas notorious for cheaters and hackers. Although PUBG Corp. has confirmed that it is? considering this option, it's taking the official line that it will improve ping times and linguistic barriers rather than making any reference to cheating players.

The complete statement, along with patch notes, can be read here. The new skins, ??and their drop-rates, are as follows??:

Triumph Crates:

• Desert Digital - R45: 15%
• Rugged (Orange) - UMP9: 15%
• Rugged (Orange) - SCAR-L: 10%
• Rugged (Orange) - M416: 10%
• Rugged (Orange) - AKM: 10%
• Rugged (Orange) - Kar98k: 10%
• Gold Plate - Win94: 5%
• Trifecta - P92: 5%
• Desert Digital - Mini14: 4.5%
• Trifecta - Micro UZI: 4.5%
• Gold Plate  - Sawed-Off: 4.5%
• Desert Digital - Kar98k: 2.5%
• Trifecta - SCAR-L: 1.3%
• Desert Digital - M416: 1.3%
• Gold Plate - SKS: 0.6%
• Glory - UMP9: 0.32%
• Gold Plate - S12K: 0.32%
• Glory - AKM: 0.16%

Raider Crates:

• Rugged (Beige) - Crossbow: 20%
• Rugged (Beige) - M16A4: 20%
• Rugged (Beige) - S686: 20%
• Rugged (Beige) - SKS: 20%
• Rugged (Beige) - Kar98k: 6.5%
• Rugged (Beige) - S12K: 6.5%
• Silver Plate - R1895: 3%
• Jungle Digital - P18C: 1.4%
• Silver Plate - DP-28: 1.4%
• Silver Plate - S1897: 0.4%
• Jungle Digital - SKS: 0.28%
• Silver Plate - Vector: 0.28%
• Turquoise Delight - P1911: 0.08%
• Silver Plate - SCAR-L: 0.05%
• Jungle Digital - AWM: 0.05%
• Turquoise Delight - Tommy Gun: 0.028%
• Turquoise Delight - Kar98k: 0.0128%
• Turquoise Delight - M16A4: 0.0128%
• Gold Plate - S686: 0.0064%

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Visual/Audio improvements, too

About a month and a half ago, PUBG Corp admitted it had no clear roadmap for the future of its game. With popularity (and cheating) rising, clearly something had to be cooking to keep people hooked. Announced just today, it looks like the future of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will be a bright one as the team plans to have ?two new maps for 2018.

The first new map is a 4x4 KM tropical themed island that is looking to offer an, "intense and faster paced Battle Royale experience." Some concept art was shown off with the island being very densely packed and surrounded by a crap ton of water. While details are scarce ??about the second map, the update notes mention it will be 8x8 KM and that the team plans to, "get this into your hands early in its development."

As for how gameplay is going to be tweaked, a new bullet penetration system is being introduced for cars and limbs. This will allow players to shoot through other players instead of bullets en??ding upon collision with their first target. Along with that, new vehicles ?and game modes are planned for sometime this year and an emote system will be brought into the game.

New animations are going to be introduced to both third-person and first-person game modes, including but not limited to entering vehi??cles and clambering over walls. These animations will also extend to the parachute system, which is set to be completely overhauled at some point. You can also expect vehicles to get a dramatic overhaul in audio quality along with some buildings receiving brand new textures.

Finally, game stability is being targeted as well as anti-cheat methods and server security. The details are thin about these changes, but the team assures they have some, "major victories to share." Rounding out the new changes will be achievements, in-game squad voice chat and an in-game friends list.

This all sounds great, but without a clear idea of what is going on with cheaters, I'm not sure how many people are going to feel happy about new maps being in development. That is easily the biggest hurdle PUBG has to cross, but I'm optimistic after reading this roadmap. New content should prevent the game from becoming stale and with lootcrates being pared back a bit, hopefully PUBG? Corp has its head in the r??ight place.

PUBG 2018 Roadmap [PlayBattlegrounds.com]

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Cheating never pays...except for today

The launch of newer, better anti-cheat measures for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has suffered a delay. Announced on Twitter, it looks like players will have to wait an undisclosed amount of time for the mega-popular PUBG to finally get on with finally tackling hackers.

The sad thing is, I can't say I'm surprised. I understand that cheating is a massive problem and that coming up with any kind of effective solution will be difficult, but these step??s clearly took a back seat to things like better loot box i?mplementation. I won't go so far as to say that PUBG Corp. is greedy, but cheating issues really should have been sorted out by now. The game is nearing a year since its early-access release (and closing in on two months since "full" release), but it still feels like a work-in-progress.

PLAY BATTLEGROUNDS [Twitter]

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Oops

Some people aren't happy about change. While I find the new Miramar map in PUBG to be a breath of fresh air after playing Erangel fifty billion times, others have been going to extre?me measures to avoid playing it.

Hilariously, avoiding the new map is as easy as deleting the file in your PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds directory. Once the file is gone? the game's lobby system automatically boots you out of the session and takes you back to the main menu. At that point you can keep queuing until you get the?? original map.

PUBG Corp is combating this by announcing their own anti-cheat measures that not only block third-party programs, but also flags players and possibly bans them for altering or deletin?g files -- a clear response to the Miramar situation??.

Players don't seem to be happy with the changes within the official post, saying they're "not enough," and that the real solution is to region lock China, where they claim a lot of the cheaters reside. We've reached out to PUBG Corp to see if w?e can get a handle on their long term plans to combat cheating beyond?? these initial measures.

Anti-Cheat Update [Steam]

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Kills 99.9% of germs

PUBG Corp. has been testing out some brand new anti-cheat methods for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on test servers for the last week or so. Whether through test results or because of fan outcr?y, the developers have taken to the Steam forums to ??explain exactly what is going on with these new solutions. To this end, the company has established a dedicated team to tackle cheating programs and will be launching another anti-cheat method on test servers next week.

Firstly, a new in-game reporting function will be added alongside faster review of reported individuals. This should allow the team to more accurately verify if an account is cheating or if network lag is the issue with a faulty death cam. Next, any modification of game files will more than likely result in your game access being blocked. This kind of flies in the face of people who have been removing the Miramar map to ??counter the lack of a dedicated map selector, but I suppose it mak??es sense.

The final step is where I start to get confused. Steam has a family sharing option that grants friends and family access to games on another account. With this, you don't need to ??purchase two copies of a game just to have a friend play, though limitations on when you can play limit you from just sharing everything. The post states that, "we have decided to deactivate this feature because we have identified a number of vulnerabilities that are being exploited." That sounds more like a bandage on top of massive wou??nd instead of an actual solution.

The post wraps up by saying, "We will continue taking firm measures against the developers, distributors and users of cheats. We promise you that we will do our best every day in our battle for a fair game environment." I just wonder if these anti-cheat measures are coming at the expense of game stability, which still isn't 100% smooth. Hopefully this doesn't introduce more problems, much like how the "stability" update makes my game load 50% slower.

Anti-Cheat Update [Steam Community]

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No more boner machine

The latest update for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has changed the way pre-game lobbies function. Previously, all 100 players would be dropped onto a small segment of the map while a countdown timer ticked down before the festivities. While waiting, players were able to grab some weapons and ?dick around to kill time (and potentially test out different guns).

Now, the 100 players will be separated into smaller groups on different islands all without firearms. This is, supposedly, to help improve the performance of servers and gameplay by reducing the server load at the start. "Lots of interaction among multiple players in such a small area had a high impact on the servers," reads the official update. "To solve this, we h??ave introduced multiple areas where players gather before the match start."

The other big piece of news is that PUBG Corp. is testing out a new anti-cheat method for the game. Since this is all in the testing phase, you can expect some crashes while starting your game. Nothing screams "I'VE LEFT EARLY? ACCESS" like more crashes.

While I still love PUBG and am hopeful for the game's future, even I can't defend how unfocused the studio appears. From yesterday's story about no clear roadmap to how prevalent bugs still are in the game, I don't think 2018 is going to be very kind to PUBG. Maybe I just need to buy?? some loot boxes? to ease the pain...

PC 1.0 Update #3 [Battlegrounds]

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Okay

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a pretty fun, low-commitment survival shooter, but it has a certain about of jank to it even as it officially launched into its 1.0 state (a process that took roughly nine months from its March 2017 Early Access launch). Some of that has been smoothed out, some of it hasn't, and all the while players are wondering ??what's next in store for the game -- the thing is, PUBG Corporation isn't quite sure.

Although there are a number of new content drops in the works, most notably a third level, we won't have an idea of when that's arriving anytime soon. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, PUBG Corporation CEO Chang Han Kim noted that they "don't have a clear roadmap with 2.0 and 3.0," though th?ey vaguely plan to enhance "the competitive side of the game." Kim explains that 2.0 may not even come by the end of 2018.

Kim notes that planning things out just isn't his style, going on to explain "We would not have been able to achieve t??he success we have if we took the conventional approach. If we had followed the steps of other games, I don't think we would have seen the same results."

Their next move is "aggressively hiring" at their new Amsterdam office, with an aim of getting 50 more people on board (split between development and the business side). Kim gives us a bit of background on the situation by explaining, "The community has grown exponentially. It's difficult to monitor everything and we hope to address this by expanding the team and putting in more effort." Translation -- they're trying to meet the global demand and cater to eSports ventures right no??w, so don't expect a whole lot of content while that happens.

PUBG Corp. to ki??ck off 2018 expansion with new Amsterdam office [GamesIndustry.biz]

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Winners don't use drugs

With any mega-popular game comes an abundance of cheaters and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is no stranger? to hackers. For awhile now, the only way to report a player was to be killed by them and suspect them of foul play, but the latest update to the "battle royale" smash hit will change that.

In a post over on the Steam community forums, PUBG Corp. has stated that, "Starting with the current test build, you will be able to report players directly from the replay feature of our game. This means that you no longer n??eed to be killed by a suspected cheater for you to be able to use the in-game reporting tool." The post then g??oes on to further detail how to utilize the new feature.

Another update coming to the game pertains to the in-game loot boxes. PUBG us??es crates to distribute cosmetic items and there will now be a few new options getting added in. Normally, players will open up crates and be given some random crap, but now there will be a locked crate that can contain items specific to the "Gamescom" and "Desperado" sets.

The rest of the fixes are mostly quality of life changes that should make for a smoother playing experience (such as four man squads now having colors that aren't deriv?ative of each other). While it is all rote and to be expected, at least cheaters should be having a harder time existing on servers.

PC 1.0 Update #2 [Steam Community]

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Just dropping in

Odds are you've probably heard of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds??, also known as "PUBG." Maybe your friend plays it. Maybe you've seen a h?eadline or two and wondered "what makes this particular game so special?"

After what felt like an eon in early access it's actually out, and given that many of us have been playing for months, it's time to finally take a look at how PUBG turned out.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PC [reviewed], Xbox One]) 
Developer: PUBG Corporation
Publisher: PUBG Corporation, Microsoft
Released: December 20, 2017
MSRP: $29.99

Why has this homely little survival shooter risen to such meteoric levels of fame? Well, PUBG is on?e of those games you can just boot up, get in, and get out of quickly. Whether it's with friends or solo (my style of play), there's something about skydiving off of a plane and surviving for five to 30 minutes in a giant sandbox that keeps me coming back.

The gist is that after parachuting down into a hellscape where everyone is out to get you, it's you versus 99 other people. Your job is to survive through any means necessary (whether that's by killing everyone else or ??by merely getting by passively) and take the top spot, which nets you the coveted "chicken dinner" title. Every few minutes, a blu??e circle will appear on the map -- you need to go there, lest you slowly die to an energy wall. That's literally it. You can earn coins to grab cosmetic loot boxes (which are thankfully not linked to microtransactions after a big dust-up months back), then go back into a new session and play again.

PUBG manages to nail the shooting aspect, whether it's in third or first-person. ??There's enough guns in there to ensure that you'll have a tool for any given situation (though they're randomly strewn about in each match, so you won't always be using the same weaponry at all times), and if you don't have it, you can kill someone and take their loot. By the same token it never gets too unwieldy, as managing first-aid, a few grenades, and several long and close-range weapons is fairly easy to do with its helpful menus.

The game's biggest ally is its penchant for entropy. Your best-laid plans will fail from time to time. That one guy that you've been stalking for five minutes straight? He probably knows exactly where you are and is waiting for the right mom?ent to hit you with his sniper -- he just doesn't want anyone else to know he's around. Even getting hit from behind by a vehicle you weren't paying?? attention to, often eliciting a "dammit!" cry, is fun.

PUBG might look like just another military shooter, but the developers have put enough silliness in their sandbox where nearly every round feels different. While many other survival games have been bogged down with crazy rulesets, much of PUBG's top-level play is common sense. Don't leave doors open or someone will know that you're there, that kind of stuff. It's welcoming to say the least, because within 30 seconds you can be in a game, land on the ground, and immediately die to someone that found a handgun in the house next to you and still have a blast. Like Tom Cruise in Live Die Repeat, every time you fail you'll intuiti??vely pick up on one thing you did wrong until you have?? a handle on what it takes to make the top 20.

There was a time where I started to get fatigued playing it, but that's changed as of several weeks ago. If it wasn't for the launch of the desert map (Miramar), I don't think I would have rated PUBG quite as highly. Erangel, its launch map that resembles a miniature archipelago, is fine, but the fatigue of playing it over and over really got to me. Not only is Miramar a better ?map overall, with more varied terrain (which is weird to say for what should be a barren wasteland), it's also more visually diverse. It single-handedly has me excited for future maps.

Unlike its much messier Xbox cousin, the team has succeeded in smoothing out most of PUBG's rough edges. Having played since the dawn of its early access campaign the amount of progress has been astounding, as the game is not only stable, but there's considerably less "jank" happening around you (it's still present, mind). B??asic features like vaulting that one would take for granted in nearly every other shooter are in, as are quicker forms of inventory management. It took a while, but it's show-ready on PC.

Even if the developer thinks they invented a genre that's been around for years, their hubris and the game's hype had no impact on this assessment of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. It's a rare occurrence when something makes its way into my ??weekly rotation of games, and jumping into? its crazy world of survival is something I still look forward to after all this time.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Cool concept

I don't use Mixer, Microsoft's new ans??wer to Twitch all that often, but I might pop in from time to time to?? see how their latest channel concept is going.

It's called "HypeZone," and the idea is that it'll only showcase PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) players who are close to winning ??-- cutting out most of the fat, akin to the NFL RedZone chann?el that was founded in 2009. As soon as someone wins or dies, the stream switches to something else.

If every channel was like this it would be pretty bad as the start game, as slow as it is in some cases, is an important part of a battle royale match, but having this option is perfectly fine. If you want to know how PUBG runs on Xbox One, check out our full impressions here.

HypeZonePUBG [Mixer]

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Even on Xbox One X

Yesterday, PUBG head Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene stated that they were "definitely" aiming for 60FPS on the Xbox One X when the game launches on December 12, but he'??s since amended that stat??ement very quickly.

Just this morning he explained that, "While I previously stated PUBG would run at higher FPS at XGP launch on 12/12, I want to clarify that PUBG will run at 30 FPS across all @Xbox One devices. W??e’re constantly refining the game & exploring options to increase FPS, but this early in dev, we’re unable to confirm more." Yep, within one day the outlook has changed.

To clarify that clarification, the Xbox One X will also be limited to 30 FPS at launch. The "aim" to eventually get to 60 on any platform they can, but in the meantime ??prepare for an underwhelming, non-optimized performance on your X. I hope Microsoft is able to work with Bluehole to get this sorted out sooner t??han later -- this is a marquee, system-selling game for the Xbox platform.

PlayerUnknown [Twitter]

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Vaulting and climbing coming at the same time

It's the most successful Early Access game of all time, but PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is barreling toward an actual final release. Developer Bluehole says that its plans are still to launch t?he 1.0 version on PC and th?e Game Preview version on Xbox before the end of the year.

In a timeline-heavy post on Steam, Bluehole reiterates how it's nearly stopping with tweaks and patches in order to get the final version ready. That means this week's update (which changes some? granular spawn stuff and fixes a few animation and UI bu?gs) will be one of the last for the short-term.

However, Bluehole still needs to test some things. There two most notable additions to PUBG between now and release will be the desert map and vaulting/climbing. Those are both scheduled to launch right alongside the final product. That means they?? will be first deployed on the test server in three phases: vaulting and climbing take priority in phase one and two; the desert map and all other content will be part of the third phase.

There aren't ??any exact dates for any of this yet. Bluehole just says that it's starting in late October at the earliest and that everything will need to be tested for two to four weeks. But these are some of the identifiable major hurdles between the beta and the final game. They grow up so quickly.

Update: Road to Launch, Patch Notes for This Week [Steam]

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Okay seriously, everyone wants the chicken dinner

As time marches on, so does the player count for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. According to Steam, the battle-royale style shooter has reached a new peak of over 2 million concurrent players - 2,016,498, to be exact. 

This information comes after months of steady growth. Just last month PUBG surpassed Dota 2's peak concurrent player count by reaching 1,349,584 million concurrent players, a feat that no one thought could be done. However, with PUBG continuing to grow at a rap?id pace, gaining over 600,000 concurrents in just a month, the ques??tion has to be raised: How long can this massive growth continue?

Along with its consistent growth in concurrent player count comes sales figures, and boy has PUBG done a double-backflip in that regard. According to SteamSpy, the game has sold over 15 million copies. To put that in perspective, we reported last month that PUBG broke 10 million in sales, which means, you guessed it, this monster of a game ??sold 5 million copies in a single month. 

What's more, it's unlikely that the shooter will cease growing, at least for now. PUBG will carve its way onto Xbox One sometime this year, and Bluehole is in talks with Sony about a potential version of the game for the PS4 too. 

What do you guys think? Are you still playing PUBG? Are you eagerly awaiting a version on your preferred gaming console? I'm still playing it with buddies from time to time, even if my video settings are so low ?that I continue to mistake heaps of? cardboard boxes for a Dacia. 

PUBG Passes Another Big Milestone On Steam [GameSpot] 

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Another timed exclusive

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds -- it's a?? big game, right? Everyone wants a seat at the table as Bluehole basically forms its own empire around the tried and true survival/battle royale concept.

The thing is, right now, it's only on PC. Microsoft tapped them first to try and get some sort of exclusivity deal on Xbox One, a concept that they've been toting around for many months now -- not speaking in any certain terms if this deal is actually exclusive or how l??ong it is. Well, over time we did learn that it's not going to be a full exclusive (Bluehole probably has enough money to not make this short-sighted decision), and that Sony is "in talks" to bring the game to PS4.

Well, Microsoft isn't having any of that, it seems. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft is looking at extending the deal to account for a longer exclusivity period. While they might not be good for us, these are the moves that?? Microsoft needs to make while Sony locks up deals left and right.

Microsoft In T?alks to Extend 'Battlegrounds'?? Exclusive Deal [Bloomberg]

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Everyone wants a chicken dinner these days

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is an unprecedented success. The popular battle-royale style game came out of nowhere back in March of this year, and has since taken the industry by storm, with over 13 million purchases, and the highest concurrent player record on Steam yet.

There's a version of PUBG coming to Xbox One later this year, and the game will depart from early access sometime in 2018, finally getting a proper release on PC, but there's something else lying in wait for PUBG: a pot?ential version of the game on this generation's best-selling console, t?he PlayStation 4.

In a recent feature with Bloomberg, Chang Byung-gyu, Bluehole'?s founder, said that his company is in talks with "all of the major console companies about bringing PUBG to a broader audience." He mentions the Xbox version that will be launching later this year, and specifically states that Bluehole and ?Sony are thinking about a release for the PS4 after that. 

Bringing the PUBG craze to consoles makes perfect sense from a business perspective, but I'm curious how far the notion of "all of the major console companies" truly goes. Could this mean that Bluehole is courting the likes of Nintendo about a Switch version? It seems possible, given that even behemoth games like DOOM are hopping on the Switch these days.

One Man?’s Journey From Welfare to World’s Hottest Video Game [Bloomberg] 

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Ring the bell

That didn't take long.

The claws have come out, as Bluehole Studios, creator of the popular battle royale shooter PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, has officially named and shamed Epic Games for aping their concept in Fornite's recently announced "Battle Royale" mode. Now Bluehole didn't invent the battle royale/survival concept one bit, but they're claiming that ??due to th??e fact that they've had an "ongoing relationship" with Epic Games, the similarities are more than coincidental.

Chang Han Kim, Vice President of Bluehole and executive producer for PUBG, stated loud and clear: "After listening to the growing feedback from our community and reviewing the gameplay for ourselves, we are concerned that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known. We have also noticed that Epic Games references PUBG in the promotion of Fortnite to their community and in communications with th?e p?ress. This was never discussed with us and we don’t feel that it’s right."

Bluehole also brought a recent statement from creator Brendan G?reene to light: "Other companies will, of course, enter the marketplace, but I would just hope they put their own spin on the game mode and not just make a carbon copy!"

The accusation has been made, now all we have to do is wait for Epic Games to come back with "you didn't invent the genre." Whether this will result in any sort of legal confrontation is yet to be known, but if Epic did in fact colla?borate closely as Bluehole claims, there might be a case there. We've reached out to Epic for comment and will be following this feud as it develops.

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On a horse with no name (maybe it was unknown too?)

In an interview with Eurogamer at this year's Gamescom, the player that isn't known (Brendan Greene) himself confirmed that the size of the upcoming desert map will be 8x8 km in size. The map was originally announced to be 4x4 km in size, for context.

But in the? interview Greene g?ave an update regarding that and had this to say: "For 100 players an 8x8 just mak?es more sense and it gives more flexibility when we move onto custom games and things like that."

So it now seems the desert map will be equal in size of the map currently in the game. I'm sure the D-Team wil??l have?? plenty of misadventures in this new map, sleeping Jeep-goers be damned.

PlayerUnknown confirms desert map will be 8x8 km [Eurogamer]

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