Playerunknown's Battlegrounds tests free, low-spec version

If you’ve always wanted to drop into Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, but lacked the PC power, you might soon be in luck. The developers are currently running a beta test for PUBG Lite; a version of the game designed to run with much lower hardware requirements.

They’ve also lowered the monetary requirement about as far as it'll go, making this version of the game free-to-play.

Currently only available in Thailand, the developers say that Plunklite is “playable even on computers and laptops utilising integrated graphics.” The beta test also only covers the game’s original map, Erangel, and you can only play from third-person perspective, but PUBG Corp also explain that there’s a “dedicated dev team” working to create both “exclusive content” and “maps and content familiar to PUBG players.”

It’s not yet clear exactly how the developers will be deciding whether this is “a viable product for other regions,” but they do say that their goal is to deliver the game to “areas where the core game’s required specifications are more difficult to achieve due to the hardware available.” That doesn’t necessarily sound like a worldwide release to me, but time will tell.

Other details, like whether there will be crossplay between this new version and the standard PC game, are also unknown. PUBG Corp simply says that they will be continuing to give updates as the beta progresses.

Over in regular-specs Plunkbat, they’ve recently added a nighttime version of winter wonderland Vikendi, leaving me wondering whether and how PUBG Lite will render those beautiful Northern Lights.