Introduction
Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) burst onto the gaming scene in 2017 and quickly became one of the most famous battles royale games ever made. Developed by PUBG Corporation, the game pits 100 players against each other on an island map where they scavenge for weapons and equipment. The last player standing wins the chicken dinner.
PUBG took the gaming world by storm, selling over 50 million copies by June 2018. Its meteoric rise was fueled by its tense and exciting gameplay, realistic weapon handling, and the thrill of the ever-shrinking battlegrounds. However, PUBG’s evolution has only sometimes been smooth sailing. The game’s developers have continually tweaked, upgraded, and overhauled PUBG to improve performance, squash bugs, and refine gameplay, if you want to plan to play a thriller then click here.
Launch & Early Access
PUBG launched in early access on PC in March 2017. The launch version only had the original Erangel map set on a fictional Eastern European Island. Players could choose to play solo, duo, or in four-player squads. The game featured over 35 real-world weapons like assault rifles, snipers, SMGs, shotguns, and pistols. Backpack space was limited, forcing players to choose what gear to carry carefully.
The launch version of PUBG was plagued with performance issues like rubber banding, lag, and unplayable server tick rates. However, the exciting battle royale concept proved extremely popular, with players willing to look past the technical problems. PUBG quickly amassed a loyal player base and hit over 1 million concurrent players within six months.
Seasons, Maps, & Major Updates
PUBG’s first significant update was the release of the Miramar desert map in December 2017. This added a completely new environment and terrain for players to master. Subsequent major updates added new maps like the Sanhok jungle map, Vikendi snow map, and Karakin rocky desert map. Players had to adapt to new gameplay strategies suited to the terrain with each new map. Miramar’s smaller towns and sparse forests encouraged long-range gunfights, while Sanhok’s dense jungle cover facilitated close-quarters combat.
In mid-2018, PUBG introduced seasons and battle passes to provide progression systems and rewards. Cosmetic items like skins could now be unlocked by playing and completing seasonal challenges. PUBG also began launching theme-based content with unique game modes, map reskins, and cosmetics. Major themes included tropical, toyland, k-pop, monster invasion, and cyberpunk.
One of PUBG’s most significant overhauls was the introduction of vaulting, climbing, and mantling in late 2017. This completely changed movement and building traversal. Players could now jump through windows, climb onto rooftops, and move more fluidly through the environment. The added verticality brought new tactical considerations for flanking, escaping, and exploration. Similarly, adding swimmable water areas on specific maps added more gameplay variety and freedom of movement.
PC Launch, Consoles, & Mobile
PUBG officially launched on PC in December 2017, marking its transition out of early access. In 2018, PUBG expanded to Xbox and Playstation consoles, bringing the battle royale experience to an even wider audience. Controls and UI were optimized for controllers while maintaining the tense, tactical gameplay. The console versions brought in millions of new PUBG players and peaked at over 5 million concurrent players in early 2019.
PUBG entered the mobile arena in 2018 with PUBG Mobile, developed specifically for iOS and Android devices. The battle royale concept proved even more popular in the mobile gaming space. PUBG Mobile quickly became one of the most downloaded and highest-grossing mobile games globally. It boasted over 50 million daily active users at its peak, while the central PC/console PUBG stagnated at around 2 million concurrent players. PUBG Mobile generated the bulk of revenue for PUBG Corporation due to its freemium model and massive player base.
Esports Scene
As PUBG continued to explode in popularity, a competitive esports scene also began to grow around it. PUBG tournaments, featuring top squads worldwide battling for prize money and glory, sprung up. PUBG Corporation fostered this by hosting official PUBG esports global events like the PUBG Global Invitational and PUBG Global Championship. Top PUBG streamers and influencers like Shroud, Ninja, and DrDisRespect helped further boost PUBG’s popularity as an esport.
However, the esports scene was not without controversy. Server lag, tick rate issues, and bugs persisted, often plaguing high-stakes tournaments. Spectating tools were also limited for viewers. Cheating and hacking also became a big problem, even infiltrating some pro events. This darkened PUBG’s reputation as a viable competitive sport at scale. At the same time, tournaments and leagues continued, and viewership and engagement plateaued by late 2019.
Gameplay Evolution
Aside from new maps, weapons, and features, PUBG’s core battle royale gameplay formula evolved. One significant change was the introduction of the red zone in early access. Random bombardments would occur, forcing players to scramble for cover or risk taking damage. However, red zones proved extremely divisive due to their randomness. PUBG later removed red zones from the ranked playlist and significantly reduced their frequency. This highlighted PUBG’s willingness to try bold ideas and its humility in reverting changes that adversely impacted core gameplay.
Vehicle balance went through multiple iterations as well. Cars and buggies initially felt floaty and fragile. Over several updates, handling became tighter, and vehicles were made more durable. Vehicle meta settled into a good spot where they enabled faster traversal and some engagements but were weak enough to prevent dominant end-game strategies. Boats were also adjusted to be faster and more resistant to flipping.
Another major gameplay shift came in mid-2018 when PUBG added its first bullet penetration systems. Players could now shoot through certain thin surfaces, which enhanced tactical play and reduced blind corner camping. Penetration mechanics were later expanded to allow sniper rifles to pierce thicker walls and even tree trunks when fired from close range. However, overall penetration values remained relatively modest to avoid overpowered wallbanging.
PUBG’s loot and spawn systems also evolved based on statistical analysis of equipment usage rates. Unpopular weapons like the crossbow and Winchester rifle eventually got removed from competitive map spawn lists. The randomness of circle algorithms was tweaked to prevent excessive mid to late-game camping. Loot distribution across maps was balanced to ensure proper gear progression from early to late game. While occasional spikes in OP weapons still occurred, PUBG took the feedback seriously to smooth out major pain points.
Gunplay nuances received continual tuning as well. Recoil patterns, spray control, and weapon handling were tuned to give each firearm a distinct feel. SMGs became quicker and deadlier up close, while ARs and DMRs were optimized for mid-range control. Bullet ballistics, muzzle velocities, and bullet drop were adjusted to prevent sniper rifles from being excessively dominant. Careful gunplay tweaks maintained consistency between PUBG’s growing arsenal of weapons while ensuring fairness.
In late 2019, PUBG overhauled its attachment system after feedback that attachments did not feel impactful enough. New attachments like laser sights and improved optics were added. Each attachment was redesigned to have a more significant impact on weapon performance. This rewarded scavenging and loadout customization more. The attachment overhaul added deeper optimization layers for weapons that had previously felt too generic.
Camping, Turtling, & Pacing
One source of constant debate around optimal PUBG strategies was the prevalence of camping and turtling tactics in the mid to late game. With the ever-shrinking circle, many matches devolved into dozens of players lying prone in fields, only moving at the very end. This slowed match pacing to a crawl and was considered boring to both play and spectate.
PUBG Corp attempted several solutions to combat excessive turtling. Red zone removal helped eliminate random deaths. Increased vehicle spawns made it riskier to camp central locations early. But fundamentally, some camping proved extremely hard to disincentivize in a high-stakes battle royale format where survival was paramount. Rating modes with competitive points helped improve pacing and made players more risk-averse.
Some of the most effective anti-camping changes came from new equipment and consumables. Spike traps provided a risky countermeasure for flushing out campers. Weapon recoil was increased for crouched and prone positions, reducing the laser accuracy of camping sprays. The latest update adds plasma trails on moving vehicles to reduce effective drive-by ambushes. While imperfect, PUBG demonstrated steady progress in guiding gameplay toward a more active and aggressive flow late and early.
Monetization & Progression
As a premium game, PUBG utilized the upfront purchase price, and seasonal battle passes as its primary monetization model. This was supplemented by in-game microtransactions for cosmetic skins purchased directly or through loot crates. However, loot boxes eventually attracted legislative concern over gambling addiction. In late 2017, PUBG began disclosing loot box odds but eventually phased them out entirely for direct purchase skins.
Progression systems were basic initially, relying on players to set their own skill goals, given the lack of ranks or levels. The first progression update added a rudimentary leveling system with XP for playtime milestones. This was later expanded into the Survival Mastery system, which rewarded progression across skills like healing, reviving teammates, headshots, driving, etc. Players could showcase their hard-earned mastery badges on their profiles.
Seasonal reward tracks were also introduced to provide progression for completing daily and weekly challenges, and each season brought new cosmetic rewards to unlock by playing regularly. Rewards ranged from clothing to weapon skins, emotes, and loot crates. This gave casual players something to work towards outside of the core gameplay.
For serious players, ranked competitive modes were added with tiered leagues from Bronze to Conqueror. Players had to grind ranked matches to progress through divisions and reach higher tiers. Ranked mode introduced objectives beyond survival, with point systems based on kills and placements. This paved the way for PUBG to be taken more seriously as an export.
Mobile Monetization
In contrast to the core PC/console game, PUBG Mobile utilized a freemium model, making the game accessible to download. This was offset by aggressive in-game monetization via battle passes, direct purchase skins, and temporary boosters. The massive install base allowed PUBG Mobile to become hugely profitable despite a muted reception to its monetization tactics.
PUBG Mobile also receives heavy criticism for loot crates tied to progressions. Certain weapon skins were only available in limited-time crates with meager drop rates. This system allowed paying players to gain advantages by acquiring exclusive rare gear. While PUBG Mobile generated massive revenue, monetization controversy and perceived “pay to win” advantages ultimately hurt player sentiment in the long run.
Technical Evolution
PUBG’s technical aspects and stability received continuous improvements post-launch. The 1.0 PC version still suffered from many performance issues like rubberbanding, lag, clipping, slow loot loading, and clunky vehicle physics. The early access codebase could have been more suboptimal after rapidly adding content to meet hype-driven demand.
Extensive optimizations were done over 2018 to smooth out issues and improve framerates for mid to low-spec machines. Network code was overhauled to improve ping times and server tick rates. New maps were designed with performance in mind. Rendering and object culling were tweaked to improve building load times. Despite the improvements, PUBG’s system requirements continued rising with each major update.
For consoles, early Xbox and PS4 versions struggled to maintain 30 fps in heated battles. Performance gradually improved to hit 60 fps targets by mid-2019 as developers better optimized Unreal Engine 4 for console limitations. Quality of life changes, like adding controller presets and aim assist options, also came. However, compromises like lower map visual fidelity and 900p resolution were required to boost performance.
The mobile PUBG port was built natively for mobile hardware rather than ported from a PC. Tailored device profiling and performance scaling produced decent results even on mid to low-end phones. Updates added options to tune graphics and FPS further based on device capabilities and load times benefitted from direct installation on mobile storage rather than mechanical hard drives. Despite optimizations, device fragmentation still produced inconsistent experiences.
Cheating & Hacking
One of PUBG’s most pressing technical issues was the proliferation of cheaters and hackers. The game’s massive popularity incentivized cheating services to create aimbots, wallhacks, and other exploits. Flying cars, instant headshots, and invincibility hacks became familiar sights in many matches. Battling cheaters became a massive burden for PUBG’s developers.
PUBG Corps responded aggressively with mass ban waves of confirmed cheaters. Prevention systems like encryption and obfuscation were added to deter reverse engineering of cheats. Machine learning algorithms helped identify suspicious statistics like impossible headshot rates. Hardware and IP bans provided additional layers of security.
Client and server optimizations helped close vulnerabilities like lag switches and packet modification. Updates like mandatory post-death kill-cam replay made it easier to report cheaters. However, hackers continued circumventing each new protection method, and cheaters remained a constant nuisance. PUBG’s Steam reviews suffered as cheating persisted among a portion of players. More authoritarian policies around cheating coupled with more robust preventative measures eventually brought the situation under control.
The Future of PUBG
PUBG finds itself at a crossroads in 2023. The breakout success of Battle Royale kicked off a genre boom with dozens of competing titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty Warzone. PUBG’s player base has plateaued but remains respectable. However, competitors are innovating faster with new modes, crossover events, and polished experiences across platforms.
PUBG must redouble development efforts to retain and grow its player base. Upcoming features aim to enhance team-based squad competition and introduce new social dynamics. PUBG recently partnered with Krafton, their parent company, to collaborate with virtual worlds like The Callisto Protocol. More engaging progression, less grindy missions, and battle pass rewards may help retention.
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Conclusion
There are also active player-led efforts to revive hardcore PUBG experiences via fan-run tournaments, mods, and community servers. Should PUBG enable custom servers and modding, this could considerably extend the game’s lifespan by empowering fans to reshape gameplay. However, custom games present a risk of fragmentation.
Ultimately, PUBG retains a loyal player base enthralled by its trademark tactical, organized, high-stakes battle royale competition. And the game is still growing on mobile. By sticking to their vision while innovating smarter, PUBG may survive the battle royale saturation. Their journey continues to be one of evolution and reinvention.
