Battle Royale is currently the “in” thing and Hi-Rez Studios is the latest developer to cash in on the craze. It recently announced Paladins: Battlegrounds, a Battle Royale twist on its free to play hero shooter. Speaking to DualShockers though, Hi-Rez Studios’ president Stew Chisam talked about how the name was actually an homage to MMOs.
When asked if the “Battlegrounds” term was inspired by other Battle Royale games on the market, Chisam said that the naming is unrelated to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (the undisputed leader in the market). With its team-based compositions and mounts for transportation, there’s a strong belief that Paladins: Battlegrounds is more like an MMO battleground. As such, Chisam and his team spoke to their attorneys to make sure there were no issues with the naming.
As such, the term “Battlegrounds” is meant to apply to a game mode and not to a game (thus it can’t be trademarked). Chisam also said that this is an evolution for a mode that was previous scrapped from Paladins: Champions of the Realm so the terms are fairly separate.
Paladins: Battlegrounds is out in 2018 as a free to play mode but stay tuned for more details on when exactly it will land.
