It looks like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds won’t quite make its original launch window. Word comes directly from Brendan “Playerunknown” Greene, via the game’s Steam community page, but fans of the battle royale shooter don’t need to panic yet. PUBG is going to take a bit longer than anticipated to finish. But Greene says the studio still expects to release v1.0 this year.
Questions about a game’s stay in Early Access are pretty common for unfinished projects. Many fans want to have some idea of what their money is being used for and the absolutely longest they’ll be asked to wait for a finished product. But game development is a tricky business, and sometimes the companies trying to bring new ideas to life end up needing more time than they originally projected. That’s exactly what’s happened with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
“I said we hoped to be out of Early Access six months after we first launched. I’ve come to realize that restricting the window to a specific month could hinder us from delivering a fully featured game and/or lead to disappointment within the community if the launch deadline is not met,” Greene wrote. “So, we have decided that we are going push the full launch back a bit from the initial six-month timeframe, but want to assure you that we are still planning a full release before the end of Q4 2017.”
Greene says fans can expect plenty of ongoing support in the interim. Bluehole will continue to release weekly and monthly updates for PUBG throughout the game’s time in Early Access. But there’s no word on what new addition(s) to the game left the studio uncertain about its ability to deliver PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds during the original release window. Console gamers can rest easy though; the delay apparently won’t impact on the game’s jump to Xbox One. But maybe Bluehole is just saving that bad news for another day.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available in Steam Early Access. The game will get a full release before the end of 2017 and is expected to hit Xbox One in early 2018.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds coverage in 2017 and however long Bluehole supports PUBG in the years ahead.
