PUBGwas once a pioneer in the battle royale genre, but it’s long been in the background of industry conversation. However, unbeknownst to many, the studio behindPUBGhas been working on a number of interesting projects.
Player Unknown’sBattlegroundsis doing numbers in 2024, especially considering its popularity back in 2018. According to Steam Charts,PUBGis still going strong; the game has consistently seen over 500k players a day in the past month. That’s a strong showing for a 7-year-old game, all without accounting for console players. Nonetheless,Fortnitehas certainly won the war—maintaining the throne it took fromPUBGso long ago. Luckily for the game’s fans, though, PUBG Studios may be on the eve of a return to the mainstream, with a lot to show for its time in the relative shadows.
Despite Fortnite’s Success, PUBG Studios Has A Lot Going For It
PUBG Mobile Has Huge Support
PUBG Mobilehas been a runaway success, surpassing the original to an extent. According to data analysis siteSensor Tower,PUBG Mobileamassed over $8bn in revenue by 2022—and it’s still going strong.PUBG Mobileis getting itself some big crossovers, includingTekken 8andVenom: The Last Dance. The title is still seeing constant support, even if there’s a large portion of the industry that isn’t paying attention to it.
Fortnite’s exodus from the App Store has definitely been a boon forPUBG Mobile’s fortunes, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. For instance,Apex Legends' attempt to enter mobile gaming failed, getting the axe in less than a year. PUBG Studios and Lightspeed Studio have some market advantages, but they’re nonetheless going in a decent direction withPUBG Mobile. Not only is the game still succeeding, it’s succeeding to an even greater degree than the originalPUBG—cornering a market that competitors likeApexandFortnitehave receded from. Where the mainline version ofPUBGhas fallen behind, its mobile counterpart has picked up the slack and kept the game in popular consciousness.
PUBG Studios Is Building Ties With Palworld
PUBG Studios isn’t known for much outside ofPUBGand its spinoffs, but that’s about to change.Palworld,Pokemon’s hit indie competitor, is coming to mobile, andPUBG Studios will be developing the port. This is something of a move outside its wheelhouse, as the studio has been steadfast in its focus on its namesake title, but its success withPUBG Mobileis a big asset. If the developer can spread this magic toPalworld, it’ll be building even more of an impressive domain in the mobile space.
Project ARC
A new PUBG Studios game was just revealed at the tail-end of October, a title by the name ofProject ARC.Project ARCwill be a 5v5, top-down shooter. Its trailer shows off some of the ‘real-time’ elements its Steam page boasts—as players will be able to share each other’s line-of-sight and thus coordinate attacks non-verbally. The page asserts that the game will be objective-based, with one team needing to ‘hack into the hidden Crypt’ while the other team defends said objective.
Project ARCwears its mobile influences on its sleeve, with a top-down perspective typically more conducive to mobile platforms. This suggests that PUBG Studios is taking the lessons of their mobile stint and taking them to the PC and console market, the place wherePUBGoriginally saw success.ARChas yet to see much attention from the gaming public, with its most popular trailer sitting at only 5.7k views. Fortunately for PUBG Studios, its constant support ofPUBGand its aggressive mobile push should cushion much of the blow if this experimentation turns up lackluster results.
