PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is playable now on the Xbox One and the Xbox One X through Xbox Game Preview, but it is hindered by some serious technical and performance issues. The PC version of the game, while extremely popular the world over thanks to its inherent competitive hook and its unique brand of online gameplay, has also faced similar issues ever since it entered Early Access on Steam, and the Xbox One version of the game is no different in this regard.
The biggest issue here has to be the frame-rate. PUBG on both the Xbox One and the Xbox One X has a frame-rate cap of 30 frames per second, but for the majority of the experience, it runs at standards much below that cap. This varies quite wildly as well, and can happen at seemingly random times. For instance, the performance during the opening moment where you jump from the plane is absolutely terrible. Frame rate drops also happen during moments that are heavy on action, such as firefights between players, and it’s not hard to imagine why.
However, it should be noted that this is a game where 100 people are all in the same online space, and the game is inherently quite dynamic in nature, so frame-rate drops are bound to happen. As such, concessions should be made- but the performance issues on Xbox One and Xbox One X are simply too pervasive in nature to ignore. These issues are made even more disappointing when you consider the fact that Microsoft’s own team at Advanced Technology Group helped PUBG Corporation with porting the game over to the Xbox One. As it stands right now, it’s hard to pinpoint how exactly they helped with any of this.
As far as the resolution is concerned, on the base Xbox One, PUBG is rendered at 1080p. Meanwhile on the Xbox One X, the resolution sees a drastic boost at a native 4K, as well as improvements in other areas, such as texture detail and draw distances. In spite of this, though, PUBG’s visual quality isn’t anything to write home about, with muddy textures and some serious pop-in issues, and that’s true on both the Xbox One and the Xbox One X, just as it is on PC as well.
It should be noted that technical faults are not new to PUBG in any way, shape or form. The PC version of the game is also let down by similar issues, so the same existing issues on the Xbox isn’t something that should shock anyone (though it’s disappointing that even with the help of Microsoft such issues couldn’t be ironed out at least to some extent). It’s also worth mentioning that, after all is said and done, PUBG is still in Xbox Game Preview, and this isn’t the final version of the game by any means, so there’s every chance that a lot of these issues will be fixed constantly over the next few months. That said, there’s a lot that needs fixing, and the state in which the game has launched in its limited capacity on the Xbox One is, frankly, disappointing.
