[Megathread] PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS

[Jimknight]

Aren't we ignoring Battlefield V?

[Khahirr]

Everyone with half a brain knew that PUBG's growth wasn't sustainable. The only thing the game is notable for is capitalizing on what was an extremely popular game mode from a zombie game (now known as H1Z1 King of the Kill) that was never going to be finished and turning it into a standalone game. It's not even the first example of a battle royal game, just the first one to copy the battle royal rules from H1Z1 and turn it into its own game. If I could pinpoint exactly why PUBG is falling from popularity I would go with:

1. No innovation/stagnation. The game is a carbon copy of an existing game mode from another game. For a long time when the game first came out, many people had troubles justifying paying $30 for a game that was essentially the same thing as what they already had. The only reason people would buy this game when it released is if you already played H1Z1 (which was free) but were pissed off at the developers for fucking around in development. Over a year later and little has changed about the game, which infringes on the initial reason the first adopters of the game had for buying the game: they wanted the battle royal game mode but with real updates and development put into it.

2. Twitch popularity bubble. Nothing stays in the #1 slot on Twitch forever and PUBG's popularity surge is largely the result of twitch streamers popularizing the game. There was almost a 6 month long period where the #1 slot on twitch was dominated by PUBG. The game's success being intertwined with Twitch lead to some fairly negative results however. Players were regularly banned for killing streamers that played PUBG creating an atmosphere of dev favoritism towards certain players that streamed, thereby making the game feel rigged.

3. Focus on expanding the game's market over supporting the game. The biggest hit PUBG took was when the focus shifted towards popularizing the game in China. What ensued was an absolute shitshow. Chinese hackers began running rampant, and when PUBG tried cracking down on the hackers they DDOS'd PUBG's servers. At that point, it appeared that PUBG devs just gave into their Chinese overlords (unsurprisingly China cracked down on the hackers once Tencent started buying shares in PUBG's parent company Bluehole). Coupling this with unaddressed latency issues that had been rampant since the beginning and had only suffered under the game's continued popularity growth, players became fed up.

The results of these points are self-evident: favoritism towards streamers and Chinese hackers created a strong wave of negative sentiment towards the game, and once PUBG fell out of twitch's #1 slot, its decline was all but assured. Without its twitch popularity keeping the game afloat, the lack of real development for a game that was essentially a copy of an existing game structure that was readily being copied by other games made people question why they bought PUBG in the first place, and thus made them look to other more innovative battle royal games to feed their interest in the genre.

[Jtbrig7390]

Then was it H1Z1?

Battle Royal started off as a book (with Battle Royal as the title and then a movie later). That lead into the Day Z mod and that lead into H1Z1 and smaller BR games. After all that PUBG came out.

The rest is history.

[Jtbrig7390]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/19/1...4-release-date

A PS4 release of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has been rated by the Korean Game Rating Board (as spotted by Eurogamer), indicating that its period of console exclusivity on the Xbox One may soon be coming to an end. Mobile versions of the game on iOS and Android released earlier in 2018.

PUBG is widely credited with sparking the battle royale genre’s explosion in popularity. At its peak, it had over 3 million people playing it concurrently as of January 2018. Other popular games have since joined the genre, including Battlefield V, Call of Duty, and, of course, Fortnite.

After it was originally released on PC in March 2017, PUBG’s immense popularity meant that it was quickly snapped up by Microsoft, which published it in early access as a console exclusive in December of that year. As of July 2018, the game had reportedly sold 8 million copies on the console.

The game initially launched in a buggy state that saw its frame rate occasionally dip into the single figures on the console. While these performance issues are still being worked on, the game’s 1.0 release earlier in September saw it hit feature parity with its PC counterpart with three maps and dynamic weather now available for its console version.

It’s currently unclear what features and maps will be available with the initial release of the PS4 version of the game, which could receive a December release if Microsoft had a year of exclusivity. But hopefully the developer’s “Fix PUBG” campaign will lead to some quality-of-life improvements for the release.

This isn’t the first time that a Korean Media Ratings Board announcement has leaked for an upcoming game. Earlier this year, it heralded the arrival of Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch, prior to its official announcement at E3 in June.

I personally prefer the style of PUBG BR over a game like Fortnite (still a good game tho) and I'm not surprised its finally coming to PS4.

With that said I know it will run like shit so until it has a decent UI and doesn't run like shit then it will be a hard pass for me.

[Dextroden]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/19/1...4-release-date





I personally prefer the style of PUBG BR over a game like Fortnite (still a good game tho) and I'm not surprised its finally coming to PS4.

With that said I know it will run like shit so until it has a decent UI and doesn't run like shit then it will be a hard pass for me.

Then prepare to be super patient. It's not as bad as it was, but it's still vulnerable to random crashing/spontaneous death to invisible rocks. Either take those lumps or wait another few months.

[Jtbrig7390]

Then prepare to be super patient. It's not as bad as it was, but it's still vulnerable to random crashing/spontaneous death to invisible rocks. Either take those lumps or wait another few months.

Oh I know I've seen the benchmarks. Its better then it was at release but it is still not playable (at lease for me). Plus the UI is halfassed as fuck.

Honestly I wish the team that did the mobile port did the console one because that's actually playable.

[Eleccybubb]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/19/1...4-release-date





I personally prefer the style of PUBG BR over a game like Fortnite (still a good game tho) and I'm not surprised its finally coming to PS4.

With that said I know it will run like shit so until it has a decent UI and doesn't run like shit then it will be a hard pass for me.

Meh no contest for me.

Free option that actually runs smooth and at 60 FPS or the buggy, poorly optimized version that will struggle to even hit 20 FPS and cost like £30-40.

Plus with Blackout coming and how smooth that experience is I think it's safe to say PUBG is going to get a run for it's money.

[Dextroden]

Meh no contest for me.

Free option that actually runs smooth and at 60 FPS or the buggy, poorly optimized version that will struggle to even hit 20 FPS.

Plus with Blackout coming and how smooth that experience is I think it's safe to say PUBG is going to get a run for it's money.

That's on them for getting fat and lazy when no one was directly competing with them.

I'm not as big a fan of the Fortnite one(Especially since it represents kicking the game they started on into the background to fad chase), but I'll give it credit for actually being same but different instead of virtually a copy.

[Jtbrig7390]

Meh no contest for me.

Free option that actually runs smooth and at 60 FPS or the buggy, poorly optimized version that will struggle to even hit 20 FPS and cost like £30-40.

Plus with Blackout coming and how smooth that experience is I think it's safe to say PUBG is going to get a run for it's money.

Ya but Blackout is costing $60 and is Activision-Blizzard soooo.

If I did get PUBG for PS4 it will be because I was able to get it cheap, Not giving them $30 for it and it very likely will run like shit anyway.

I will laugh my ass off if the PS4 version actually runs better then the Xbox version.

- - - Updated - - -

That's on them for getting fat and lazy when no one was directly competing with them.

I'm not as big a fan of the Fortnite one(Especially since it represents kicking the game they started on into the background to fad chase), but I'll give it credit for actually being same but different instead of virtually a copy.

Ya but honestly there isn't a whole lot you can do with a horde mode game and they are still supporting it with updates.

[Dextroden]

Ya but Blackout is costing $60 and is Activision-Blizzard soooo.

If I did get PUBG for PS4 it will be because I was able to get it cheap, Not giving them $30 for it and it very likely will run like shit anyway.

I will laugh my ass off if the PS4 version actually runs better then the Xbox version.

- - - Updated - - -


Ya but honestly there isn't a whole lot you can do with a horde mode game and they are still supporting it with updates.

It's heartbreaking because I believed they believed in the PvE side. I know it's not abandoned, but you could tell which way the wind was blowing once the first tests started.

Again. Credit for doing more than people on Steam making direct PUBG clones.

[NoRest4Wicked]

I'm still enjoying PUBG, and they have slowly been making good changes for the game on PC.

However, I already bought BO4 with WoW gold and will definitely give their BR mode a go. The game is far more polished than PUBG, mostly because they just recycle the previous CoD.

I'll probably buy BF5 as well, because I like the larger scale vehicle battle conquest type games. Why not all 3? (Oh, and Insurgency: Sandstorm - I don't think they have a BR mode though).

[NoRest4Wicked]

They really stepped it up with Vikendi. Map is beautiful, seeing a lot of my friends that haven't played in a while. I also like the parachute changes, you can glide that thing the entire map holding ctrl.

[Eleccybubb]

You know what. Credit where it's due on PS4 it doesn't run that bad other than going down to 15 FPS when parachuting down.

I may pick it up when it goes 50% off. I just seem to be better at games like this and Fortnite with a controller.

[Jtbrig7390]

You know what. Credit where it's due on PS4 it doesn't run that bad other than going down to 15 FPS when parachuting down.

I may pick it up when it goes 50% off. I just seem to be better at games like this and Fortnite with a controller.

Ya I said screw it and bought it when it came out. The performance on both PS4 and XB1 is much better. The cost was graphic's tho and the game looks like complete ass.

[Tech614]

Ya I said screw it and bought it when it came out. The performance on both PS4 and XB1 is much better. The cost was graphic's tho and the game looks like complete ass.

When you downgrade your game to the point it looks like a ps2 game and still can't get a stable 30...

[Jtbrig7390]

When you downgrade your game to the point it looks like a ps2 game and still can't get a stable 30...

Very true.

I got the game for a bit under $20 so I figured why not, But ya it looks really really bad even compared to the PC version on the lowest settings.

[Appelgren]

They really stepped it up with Vikendi. Map is beautiful, seeing a lot of my friends that haven't played in a while. I also like the parachute changes, you can glide that thing the entire map holding ctrl.

Nice to see someone actually discussing the game and not all the other BR-games and how much better they are than PUBG

I agree with Vikendi. Such a great map. Me and my duo-mate have been playing insanely much since release.