PUBG’s post-launch future, and the way Brendan Greene hopes to cease battle royale clones

Experiencing such success earlier than your sport has even formally launched comes with loads of strain, and whereas PUBG retains the limelight for popularising the battle royale style, copycats are bobbing up throughout it to capitalise on its recognition.

We spoke to Brendan Greene, PUBG’s artistic director, concerning the journey to 1.zero, copyright safety in videogames, and the way forward for battle royale.

SE7EN.WS: Last time we spoke you had simply launched on Early Access, how have issues been?

Brendan Greene: Yeah, it has been a fairly wild yr so now we get to return out of Early Access at the moment. Things are good.

What does 1.zero imply for the way forward for PUBG?

1.zero was a milestone for the staff greater than the rest. We imagine the sport now’s comparatively, when it comes to gameplay, characteristic full. We have added every thing we mentioned we’d, however we have now nonetheless bought work to do. I mentioned in a tweet yesterday that that is the top of the start – we have now a comparatively steady sport and now we simply have to work on polish, stability, and simply regularly improve shifting ahead. There are going to be issues: it is a multiplayer sport. This is a marathon for us and over the subsequent yr and years we plan to maintain including to and upgrading the sport.

What options are on the horizon after 1.zero?

We have talked about this earlier than. We plan so as to add new belongings reminiscent of maps, autos, and weapons to be able to give new and fascinating battlegrounds to play in.

And what about extra minor options?

With the sport that we have now now we actually wish to begin working towards enhancing the methods that we have now. For instance, with customized video games we actually wish to give extra granular management over what you are able to do in a customized sport. The identical goes for the 3D replay system the place we have now already seen an enormous variety of machinima created from the system we launched, and we wish to preserve enhancing this and including to it to provide the content material creator extra probabilities to experiment throughout the sport. So we have now all of the methods in place, we simply wish to give extra fine-grained management over it, flesh it out, and make it a very polished sport.

Can we count on the 1.zero construct to be the identical as what’s at present on take a look at servers?

Yeah, just about. We have labored onerous on the take a look at servers attempting to get every thing as much as spec. There are nonetheless some points there, however the staff again in Korea are working very onerous to resolve them.

There has been lots of dialogue over whether or not PUBG ought to be included in GOTY lists because of its Early Access standing – what do you concentrate on that?

We had been honoured simply to be included in a few of these classes, you already know, up in opposition to Zelda, which is a real masterpiece of storytelling, and Horizon: Zero Dawn, which took seven years to create. To even be nominated in addition to these video games is an honour, whether or not we must always or not, that may be a query for different individuals.

Are you pleased with the present crate system?

I’ve all the time mentioned cosmetics system is nice for the sport in the long term as a result of we have to help the sport over the approaching years. We usually are not going to be promoting thousands and thousands of copies each week anymore, so it’s a must to suppose in the long run: how are we going to help the servers or how are we going to pay our employees? 

I actually suppose the beauty containers, what you see in CS:GO and with our crates at Gamescom, I feel they work. They don’t have an effect on gameplay, they’re a purely non-compulsory system. We will discuss extra about this going ahead, however proper now we’re actually specializing in 1.zero and the soundness of the sport. We have by no means actually involved ourselves an excessive amount of about beauty objects and stuff like that, it has been extra about getting a steady sport in place.

So nothing will probably be altering when 1.zero goes stay?

Exactly, we checked out what occurred throughout Gamescom, seemed on the information, and tweaked it a bit of bit, however we are going to announce extra about beauty objects sooner or later.

How was the response to the Gamescom Invitational Crates?

It was nice. People actually take pleasure in making themselves look distinctive, and we noticed a fantastic response to that crate.

The Xbox model of PUBG has come underneath lots of criticism for efficiency points – will you ever maintain again or restrict improvement of the PC model in order that new content material will run on the Xbox model?

I don’t imagine so, I don’t suppose we have now ever mentioned that. We wish to finally preserve the roadmaps collectively, proper now the 2 variations are on barely completely different roadmaps as a result of the event timings are completely different. We wish to ship the identical experiences on each, we don’t imagine in holding one construct above the opposite.

So now you might have launched Miramar, is there something you possibly can inform us concerning the third map?

Not actually. Right now we simply wish to concentrate on getting Miramar out the door. We actually haven’t checked out some other maps proper now – maps take a very very long time to make. Miramar has been in improvement now for 3 months whole, and there’s nonetheless lots of work to do to be able to make it actually shine. It is identical with Erangel, too – making these terrains is an ongoing course of, and whereas I might love to speak about what else we have now deliberate for the long run we don’t have something to share for the time being.

Going again to 1.zero, are there any massive adjustments that maybe gamers won’t discover?

There are plenty of completely different bug fixes that you will notice in our patch notes, simply plenty of niggling issues that individuals have complained about. But actually it’s concerning the stability, that’s what we’re actually aiming at – internally, our construct is king. We are attempting to create a steady platform for individuals to play battle royale on. Loads of the stuff we do isn’t flashy or shiny, it’s simply purely that we mentioned we are going to do it, so we’re doing it. So yeah, there are many little issues like holding ADS to scope as a substitute of clicking mouse to ADS. There are plenty of issues like that the place the neighborhood has requested for them and we have now put them in.

What is your subsequent precedence after 1.zero?

Moving ahead we’re nonetheless going to have issues which we’re going to wish to repair, and in 2018 we are going to assembly and discussing what our plans will probably be, however actually it’s to proceed to enhance and improve Battlegrounds to be able to make it actually aggressive for individuals to play in. Once we have now that locked down then we will look into offering instruments for correct esports. We are nowhere close to esports prepared but however perhaps subsequent yr we will get the sport to a state the place we will work with organisations to start out constructing a battle royale scene.

How will that esports scene look from a grassroots perspective?

Well, we have already got that. If you have a look at customized video games, from Japan to China, to Russia and the US, there are weekly and month-to-month leagues working, and a lot of the skilled groups for PUBG are collaborating in these leagues. So there’s already a grassroots scene forming and that was our intention. We mentioned we’d solely transfer ahead with esports if our neighborhood wished it – with our customized sport system and leagues we’re actually beginning to see the fruits of that, and the neighborhood are choosing up the ball and working with it. We hope to see extra of that in 2018.

Is esports considered one of your fundamental focuses going ahead?

For certain. I’ve mentioned earlier than – 1.zero is a superb milestone – however that once I began doing battle royale mods years in the past I all the time thought it will make a fantastic esport. For me, it’s like our first main in an enormous stadium or an occasion devoted to Battlegrounds or battle royale. Now that the sport is in a great state, that’s what I had dreamed of 4 or 5 years in the past. So that’s our focus now, getting the sport to that state, and I’m actually fortunate with the staff we have now in Korea and around the globe, they’re simply one of the best bunch of individuals – I’ve a imaginative and prescient and so they  actually work to create it.

You spoke about copyright in video games not way back? What do you see because the distinction between PUBG copycats and the titles you labored on like H1Z1?

OK, so the factor is Battle Royale and H1Z1 had been my concoctions as effectively, and even the battle royale sport mode I licensed to H1Z1 and I licensed to Bluehole. Our boss, CH Kim, was very respectful about this being my unique concept, and other people will say that The Hunger Games got here up with it first or Battle Royale the film got here up with it first. The final man standing mode I declare no possession of in any respect, however the very particular methods I had created for Arma three don’t exist in these motion pictures and didn’t exist earlier than that so I really feel like, OK, these are distinctive issues that I got here up with. 

So once I talked about that, and I wish to preserve this transient, we wish to try to defend artists, video games to me are very a lot artwork kinds so when somebody creates one thing distinctive and new there ought to be recourse to obtain safety and there’s no framework for that now. That is what we wish to look into, or do a little bit of analysis on, we’re not saying we wish to do it or something like that, it’s simply that these frameworks and methods exist in different mediums, so why do they not exist in video games simply but? It’s one thing that I feel we have to look into.

That have to be particularly irritating if you see so many clones cropping up, or massive video games like Fortnite Battle Royale adopting the identical mechanics…

Yeah and it’s going to occur anyway, however it will be good if there was some type of authorized framework in place. And this doesn’t should stifle creativity – I’ve seen this earlier than, individuals saying this may stifle creativity. No, it received’t. I feel it’s going to encourage creativity as a result of individuals must provide you with new concepts as a substitute of us and going, oh, that’s a good suggestion, let’s simply try this as a substitute. That’s what we wish to look into, attempting to create some type of framework. Whether or not we’ll achieve success is one other query, however we simply wish to look into it as a result of it exists in different mediums and there’s no motive why it shouldn’t exist in video games.

How does it really feel to have the Chinese authorities discussing your sport?

[Chuckles] It’s weird, man. Some of the stuff that’s occurred, like within the Korean nationwide meeting a politician arrived with a golden frying pan and held it up saying, ‘Do you know what this represents?’. That is mad to me, that stuff like that is taking place due to a factor I created, it’s simply surreal. And listening to that concerning the Chinese authorities mentioning our sport, it’s simply all surreal and I attempt to take it with a pinch of salt. 

Going again to 1.zero, did you strategy Miramar otherwise to Erangel? What’s modified from a design perspective?

We simply had much more expertise from working with Erangel. The staff had lots of information from watching how individuals performed the map and what individuals wished from the map – we have now a fantastic staff, each in Korea and in Madison, Wisconsin. The guys in Madison, a few of them are ex-COD devs and degree designers and have lots of expertise creating these sensible worlds. The two groups work very well collectively and we simply took every thing we realized from final yr when making Erangel and put it into Miramar. Having guys on the staff that will spend their weekends studying books on the varied bushes from the area and stuff like that, to essentially get a way of what that area is like. They have accomplished a very good job in creating distinctive areas, but additionally in creating an enormous map that feels a bit of extra actual than Erangel.

Can we count on Erangel to alter sooner or later, too?

Sure, as I preserve saying, this isn’t a dash, it is a marathon, and 1.zero isn’t the top of improvement. We wish to return, and I’ll reference CS:GO in that Dust is in V3 now or one thing like that, and we wish sooner or later to return and launch an up to date model of Erangel, and even an up to date model of Miramar because the tech will get higher, or as we uncover enhancements, or higher artwork. This is an enormous journey for us, and it is a massive begin. We wish to proceed engaged on this over the subsequent 5 or ten years and preserve upgrading the sport, so yeah it’s very attainable that you possibly can see Erangel V2 or V3 over the subsequent few years.

How have gamers reacted to vaulting?

I feel it’s been nice. Looking on the take a look at servers, it hasn’t impacted gameplay an enormous quantity, and but it has. It permits a bit extra verticality, it lets gamers get to locations they beforehand wouldn’t have been capable of, after which to get out which could have struggled with earlier than because of pretty bugs. I feel it has made the map much more accessible, and the suggestions we have now bought on it from gamers has been superior, there aren’t any main bugs with it, individuals aren’t being despatched into house – we’re very pleased with how the system performs within the sport.

I’ve been amazed by how seamless it’s, clearly lots of work has gone into it…

Oh, they’ve accomplished such a fantastic job and this was led by our content material creator Marek. He created this dynamic system that type of scans the geometry of PUBG, so that enables us, in relation to creating maps, to design it nevertheless we wish to, and we’re not restricted by having to construct a wall a sure peak, we will simply construct a map after which vaulting may be added to it.

Games like Rainbow Six Siege have encountered points with potential information limits, is that this one thing you might be involved about as you add extra content material going ahead?

I don’t know, we haven’t actually mentioned that. If you discuss sport sizes, have a look at GTA, what’s that? Like 60GB? But we haven’t actually checked out that, we have now clearly been too centered on getting the sport out. I imply, wanting ahead, we are going to discover methods to optimise file sizes going ahead and with a sport with maps the dimensions of ours then measurement may be a difficulty some day, however I don’t suppose we’re there proper now.

Do you might have a dream characteristic that you’d like to see in PUBG?

My dream characteristic was the 3D replays. That’s what I wished, I wished individuals to have the ability to create content material based mostly on rounds and their kill, and we wish to develop it out and make it a fully-featured cinematography software the place you are able to do all kinds of actually fascinating stuff within the 3D replays, to provide individuals this various approach to create content material. That was my dream characteristic, and once I heard that it was attainable utilizing Unreal that actually bought me considering, holy shit, that is superior and we will create this entire new degree of content material. That was my dream characteristic to get in there so I’m pleased now.