PUBG Studio, the team behind the originalPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, recently rebranded the first major battle royale game to the redundantPUBG: Battlegrounds. At the time, it was assumed the rebranding was due to line-wide focus onPUBGdue to its familiarity with players. Now, it seems, there may have been a more significant reason. PlayerUnknown himself, Brendan Greene, has officially left PUBG Studio parent company Krafton entirely.
Greene officially confirmed his departure from Krafton’sPUBG Special Projectsdivision Tuesday. In a statement, Greene said he was “very grateful” to everyone at PUBG and at Krafton for the opportunities he was provided over the past four years. Given that Greene was so key to the development ofPUBGthat his name was attached to the project, and remains a part of the branding even now, it’s understandable why he’d be so appreciative.
RELATED:PUBG Gets a Silly New Name
But Greene isn’t leaving PUBG Special Projects without a plan. He’s also announced that he’s forming a new studio named Playerunknown Productions. This studio will be based in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Amsterdam is also where the PUBG Special Projects division has been based.
Greene’s also confirmed that while Playerunknown’s Productions will be independent,Kraftondoes “hold a minority” stake in the company. That Greene is leaving a Krafton-owned studio in Amsterdam to form a Krafton-funded studio in Amsterdam is curious, to say the least.
No project has been officially announced at Playerunknown Productions yet, understandable. Greene did provide an idea of the studio’s direction, though. Playerunknown Productions will work on the “systems needed to enable massive scale within open-world games.”
On paper, it sounds like Greene wants to take the 100-player concept that launched the viral success of battle royale games to another level. “Massive scale,” if it wasn’t clear, is meant to refer to multiplayer, which has been a focus of Greene’s professional experience, though Greene has previously said he’sdone with the battle royale genre.
One looming question left unanswered is what will happen to the project Greene was working on at PUBG Special Projects. When Greene left thePUBGteam in March 2019 to start PUBG Special Projects, his in-development game was referred to asPrologue.Prologuewas teased in December 2019, but nothing has been shared about the project in the time since.
It’s likely to be some time before Greene is able to show the fruits of Playerunknown Productions' work. Games often take years of development before they’re ready to share. Of course, it took less than a year forGreene to teasePrologueafter he went to PUBG Special Projects, but that was likely a special case. Regardless, it’ll be exciting to see what Greene and Playerunknown Productions' game turns out to be.
PUBG: Battlegroundsis available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
