This time last year, it was PUBG setting the records and getting most of the attention in the battle royale genre, but now Fortnite is dominating in almost every way. Part of what makes Fortnite so appealing is that developer Epic Games updates and the game on a near-constant basis with new content and tweaks, which encourages players to continue coming back to see what’s new and improved. And that in turn gets more people spending money on the free-to-play game’s microtransactions, which have reportedly been incredibly lucrative. PUBG also updates regularly, but now developer PUBG Corp. has acknowledged that the game has “fallen short” in some ways.
In a blog post recently, the studio said it’s been focused on hiring as part of its effort to “invest in [PUBG’s] ongoing development.” Alongside the hiring, the studio is working on new content–like the Sanhok map–and various “quality of life” improvements. On top of this, the studio is working on a “series of aggressive anti-cheat measures” for PUBG. The studio has made strides and the game is generally speaking in a better place now, but it hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows for PUBG Corp.
“Although we’ve made some meaningful improvements to PUBG, we’ve fallen short in other ways,” the developer said. “Players have rightfully called us out for failing to address complaints about performance, and recently we haven’t done the best job of communicating about the changes we’re making to the game.”
To address this, PUBG Corp. published the first in a series of “Dev Letters” that aim to give the player community and update on what’s been going on at the studio and what they can expect from PUBG going forward.
The full blog post is very in-depth and well worth a read for PUBG fans. In short, the company listed off three main priorities that PUBG Corp. will focus on in the future, and these include performance, server-side optimization, and cheating.
Looking ahead, the new map Sanhok should be available on PUBG’s live servers “before the end of June.” After that, the studio will new vehicles and one weapon that will be exclusive to Sanhok.
“We’ll have a lot more to share about the other goodies coming to Sanhok in the coming weeks,” the developer explained. “There’s so much work we have to do to truly deliver on PUBG’s potential.”
While PUBG may not be as popular as it once was, it remains an absolute juggernaut. It had more than 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam today, which puts it firmly at the top of Steam’s most-played game chart. That number is down from a record peak high of around 3 million. The game is also on Xbox One and mobile where it is also incredibly popular.
For lots more on the battle royale genre, check out GameSpot’s recent feature, “Battle Royale Games Explained: Fortnite, PUBG, And The History Of A New Trend.”