Every year, there is that one multiplayer game that makes gamers go crazy and deviates a majority of the population to it. Last year saw Overwatch take the plaudits. This year, it’s all about PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, better known as PUBG, which in the seven months since its release has become the ninth best-selling computer game of all time.
PUBG is an action game in which up to one hundred players fight in a battle royale, a type of large-scale last man standing deathmatch where players fight to be the last alive.
Players can choose to enter the match solo, or with a small team of up to four people. In either case, the last person or team left alive wins the match. Each match starts with players parachuting from a plane onto a map area. The plane’s flight path across the map varies with each round, requiring players to quickly determine the best time to eject and parachute to the ground.
Players start with no gear beyond customized clothing selections which do not affect gameplay. Once they land, players can search buildings and other sites to find weapons, vehicles, armor, clothing, and other equipment. These items are procedurally distributed throughout the map at the start of a match, with certain high-risk zones typically having better equipment. Killed players can be looted to acquire their gear as well.
Players can opt to play either from the first-person or third-person perspective, each having their own advantages and disadvantages in combat and situational awareness, although server-specific settings can be used to force all players into one perspective to eliminate some advantages. The map size keeps shrinking as people die and those that are alive can get loot dropped from planes anywhere on the map.
The game has already sold more than 13 million copies in seven months and according to Steam, has the highest peak players in the last few weeks. PUBG has been the only game to have had a higher player base than Dota 2 on Steam in the last few months!
A lot of professional CS:GO players have migrated to PUBG as steaming the game is earning them the big bucks. With such a big player base, what remains to be seen is whether the makers will try to develop it into an e-sport or just promote it as a casual game. Either way, they are and will be reeling in the big bucks!
