PUBG or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds launched on Steam in Early Access back in March 2017 and was an instant hit. He basically introduced the masses to the battle royale game genre and people were addicted to it.
Version 1.0 of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been launched on Steam for $20. It was available at discounted prices, but was by no means free. But it looks like the developer is finally making the game free.
PUBG: Battlegrounds: Free to Play
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which is the PC version of the game, has been renamed to PUBG: Battlegrounds. And now Dave Kurd, Creative Director of Krafton, announced at The Game Awards 2021 that the game will be free-to-play four years after its official launch.
The game will be free to play from January 12, 2022, and pre-registration is currently available. But some elements of the game will still have paid access, including ranked matchmaking. These items can be accessed by paying a one-time fee of $12.99 for Battlegrounds Plus, which will essentially be an “account upgrade”. Battlegrounds Plus will give people access to ranked and custom match modes, special in-game items, and more.
Those who already own PUBG: Battlegrounds will be rewarded with a special PUBG Commemorative Pack that will include Battlegrounds Plus and additional in-game items.
PUBG is one of the most popular games with over 75 million copies sold since its launch. And Krafton has had even more success with PUBG Mobile in all of its iterations, which have been downloaded over 1 billion times.
But this move to make the game free-to-play may be driven by the fact that the game has been losing players for some time now. This was also one of the reasons why the developers decided to finally include bots in the game back in May 2020.