Roblox and Fortnite are two of the largest video games round, and an enormous a part of why is as a result of they aren’t only one recreation: as a substitute, they’re huge platforms the place you’ll be able to social gathering up with your mates, costume up in ridiculous digital outfits, and shortly soar from one expertise to a different. Again within the day, Fortnite copied PUBG by making a battle royale, and now, PUBG is mimicking Fortnite by making an attempt to grow to be extra of a platform than a recreation.
As a part of a roadmap launched earlier this year, PUBG developer Krafton stated that it could let gamers create their very own modes as a part of an alpha, and it revealed extra particulars concerning the alpha this month. This week, Krafton CFO Dongkeun Bae additionally mentioned the corporate’s imaginative and prescient for “PUBG 2.0” in an earnings call. “It is not going to simply merely be a battle royale recreation per se,” he stated by means of a translator.
The sport can even be “a gameplay platform” and Krafton is creating “wide-ranging modes beneath that goal.” It looks as if this method might be so much like Fortnite’s, which gives a mixture of Epic Video games-made modes and user-created experiences. Krafton additionally isn’t simply doing user-generated content material (UGC) as a result of it’s “at present the mainstream,” Bae stated. With UGC, if it’s opened as much as the broader participant base, gamers will be capable to “create many various issues” with PUBG.
The shift is smart. By opening PUBG — which continues to be one of many most-played titles on Steam — to completely different sorts of experiences, it might develop past simply hardcore shooter followers. Fortnite’s battle royale modes are nonetheless fairly standard, however you can too play lower-stakes modes themed round Lego, navigating impediment programs, racing, and enjoying music collectively. Epic has put numerous effort behind increasing from simply being a battle royale expertise, even when a few of them, like a combat-free social gathering island, haven’t been huge hits. And Roblox’s user-made Develop a Backyard, which is a farming simulator, has been breaking concurrent player records.
In some methods, including user-generated content material is a continuation of PUBG and Fortnite following related tracks. Like Fortnite, PUBG has big crossover events, for instance. However PUBG’s creator instruments have a protracted option to go to meet up with what’s attainable with Fortnite and Roblox, although. Roblox was first launched in 2006, and the corporate gives the Roblox Studio for making video games and extensive resources for Roblox developers. And Epic is investing closely in its Unreal Engine-level instruments for making Fortnite experiences. However like with Roblox and Fortnite, PUBG gamers might have already invested money and time that makes switching over to a brand new recreation that rather more tough. By letting gamers make their very own experiences, Krafton can maintain these gamers within the PUBG universe and doubtlessly pull in new ones.
One factor Krafton may additionally be taught from Fortnite: this sort of player-driven growth can take a very long time. Epic has been working and iterating for years to construct up Fortnite’s ecosystem of user-made experiences, and even then, Epic’s personal modes are often those with essentially the most gamers. It would in all probability take some time to know if Krafton’s PUBG 2.0 plan is a winner winner rooster dinner.