The success of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has instantly changed the game for multiplayer shooters- while traditional multiplayer FPSs continue to do well, as evidenced by Call of Duty: WW2‘s success, they are paling next to just how much of a phenomenon PUBG, and Fortnite, which has followed in its footsteps, became.
So, of course, given that this is a trends driven industry, one has to assume that major developers and publishers are looking at PUBG to see what they can learn from it, right? EA has confirmed that DICE’s Battlefield team, at least, is looking at the game, while also emphasizing that that does not mean a straight Battlefield skinned PUBG clone.
“In terms of PUBG, again I think what you discover in this industry is a lot of vectors that drive player engagement”, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said during the company’s earnings call. “And one of those is just innovation in the core game play mechanic. And what the team with PUBG have done is really deliver a new level of innovation that change the way people were playing a shooter game. And we are very respectful and complimentary what they have been able to do. We’ve seen that continue with [Fortnite].
“Again, so it’s clearly a mode of play that the global FPS population is interested in, and given that we have some of the best shooters in the marketplace, you might expect that we are also thinking about new and innovative ways to play. And that doesn’t mean just PUBG replicas inside of the Battlefield universe, but it does mean that our Battlefield team has looked at PUBG, looking at how they innovate in every aspect of the game including core game play and map design.”
While a PUBG by DICE with the level of destruction that they offer would be very interesting to see, at the same time I am not sure how feasible it would be, and whether or not it is something that DICE’s Frostbite engine would even be able to support. I am eager to see how PUBG influences all shooters going forward- maybe Activision can incorporate elements from it in the next Call of Duty game.
