PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds hits closed beta on 24th
Batt me up
Battle Royale 'em ups and first-person Hunger Gamesers have become so popular that I once, er, briefly forgot that Battle Royale and The Hunger Games are novels and films. They're last-man-standing affairs dunking loads of players into murderworlds to roam, loot, craft, and kill, kill, kill. One of the more notable Hungerers on the horizon is PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds [official site] because it bears the name of the chap who designed Arma 3's Battle Royale mod then helped on H1Z1: King of the Kill.
It's due to enter closed beta on the 24th, the devs have now announced, then after about four weeks will launch into early access.
The devs say they had planned to launch the game fully after closed beta, but on reflection have decided to take a detour through early access for up to six months. They say it's helpful for community-oriented development, yeah? Early access is also a place many Hungerers have stalled, unfinished, unbalanced, and buggy. That's not an inherent problem of early access but I'd be a bit wary myself.
Anyway! PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is a Battle Royale 'em up doing those Hunger Games things, with vehicles and all. It looks fairly pretty and polished as the genre goes. While many of these games are made by relatively inexperienced teams, Battlegrounds is being made by Tera devs Bluehole Studio. Have a peek at its shiny shininess in this new trailer:
The big draw Blue Hole are counting on -- going by the name -- is the involvement of PlayerUnknown. This is his third (second-and-a-half?) Hungerer so you'd hope he brings valuable insight to the genre's problems? Or... maybe what I see as the problems, he might see as cornerstones. Dunno! RPS resident rowdy boys Brendan and Graham played King of the Kill and did not dig it. Maybe it'd be enough for an experienced studio to make a Hungerer to a high standard with little jank and wonk - and actually finish and launch it.
Oh, will you look at that - these dafties are so excited about announcing closed beta dates that they entirely forgot to say how people can sign up. You silly sausages!