Dave Curd: PUBG Is Free Not Because of the Competition
PUBG: Battlegrounds is finally available as a free-to-play game. The developers assure that this was an „independent” decision, unrelated to the success of competitive battle royales.
As announced, PUBG: Battlegrounds has just become free-to-play. Formally it happened yesterday, but since January 10 there were maintenance works and only since this morning players can download a new update or the entire game. On this occasion, the creators have released a new, quite unusual trailer, which you can watch below.
Dave Curd, creative director at PUBG Studios, mentioned the reasons for moving to the free-to-play business model. In an interview with GamesRadar he assured that It's not due to the success of free-to-play competitors like Apex Legends or Fortnite. The company simply felt it was the "right time" to make such a decision in order to encourage players to check out PUBG. Especially those who "for various reasons" have not yet given this game a chance. Curd also stressed that every popular battle royale - yes PUBG as well as its competitors - has its own "unique" strengths:
We made the decision to make PUBG: Battlegrounds a free-to-play game, because we think it's really the right time [for such a decision]. I know there are a lot of people who were interested in PUBG: Battlegrounds but have never played it for various reasons. Now is the perfect time to start.
In no way is this an answer to the other titles you mentioned [GamesRadar's Josh West asked about Apex Legends, Fortnite i Call of Duty: Warzone - author's note]. These are all great entries, specializing in their own unique strengths, just like us. We're developing our game independently of the others and are excited about what's in store for us.
These assurances aside, PUBG Studios' decision has already borne its first fruits. On Steam PUBG has remained one of the most popular productions for years, but in recent months, even at its peak, there were "only" a little over 450,000 people playing simultaneously (via Steam Charts). Meanwhile, today PUBG managed to attract almost 669,000 users on Steam, thus beating one of the undisputed leaders of the platform - Dota 2. Only for a short time, the game has come third in the ranking, leaving most of the competition far behind.
This is good news for PUBG Studios, especially if it manages to maintain interest in the game for longer. What is also interesting, the developer plans to expand the universe of PUBG: Battlegrounds with more works, not just video games.
