Brendan Greene a.k.a. “PlayerUnknown”, one of the pioneer designers of the battle royale genre and creator of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, seems to be done with it. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Greene detailed that he’s stepping away from the main game of PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds, one of the first battle royale titles released on the market, even before the current king of the mountain, Fortnite, had a mode for battle royale.
Greene has moved on to the PUBG Corp’s Special Projects division to work on projects they aren’t ready to talk about yet, but promise are “exploring, experimenting, and creating new technologies, tools, pipelines, and gameplay.”
“I have lots of other ideas in my head for games I would like to play and we’re going to see if other people would like to play them too,” Greene said about his new team and the work he’s doing with them. “That’s where we’re at. We haven’t really started anything yet because we’re team building.”
While the details aren’t ready for the public, Green says he does not intend to make PUBG 2.
He instead wants to make games that connect people through experiences. “The last man standing concept is great, but I’ve done that. I don’t really intend to make PUBG 2. I’ve done battle royale, it’s time to try something else. There are ideas about how we connect to people and how we provide the different experiences I have.”
“I’ve done the killing thing,” he added. “It’s fun. I think I’ve provided others with a good way of killing each other. But I want to explore some other things.”
While he is seemingly done with the genre, Greene holds no ill-will or distaste for it and actively wants the current team to continue making PUBG the best it can be. In fact, he hopes to even see Battle Royale e-sports soon.
“I want to see battle royale esports,” he said. “I think the team we have are doing a good job — it takes a long time to create a successful esport. It doesn’t happen overnight, especially the systems and procedures you need to run. I don’t care who does it — I’d love it to be us, I think it will be us — but that’s my dream.
“I’d also like to see battle royale stabilise, and see more people making their own battle royales out of pleasure rather than just trying to make a quick buck. Apex Legends did an amazing job, they didn’t hype anything, they just announced and delivered a great game. It’s hard to enter the space right now. I don’t envy the developer teams with that task.”
With the ever growing popularity of the genre and new games adapting the model (and doing so very successfully at that), he’ll probably get his wish, even if it means he won’t be part of it.
