PlayerUnknown moves on from PUBG development

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is having to do without PlayerUnknown, with creator Brendan Greene moving on to pastures new as part of a newly-formed PUBG Special Projects division.

First released in Steam Early Access back in 2017, a planned six-month development schedule for Brendan Greene's PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds was quickly abandoned as the game's popularity grew. Credited with a resurgence of interest in the battle royale genre, which sees a large number of players competing in a deathmatch using scavenged weapons and vehicles in an ever-shrinking play space, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds became big enough to spin out into a dedicated company and, following a deal for Xbox exclusivity on console, launched in December 2017.

Following the announcement of a PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Lite release in January, though, it appears that Greene believes his work on the title is done - and now PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is losing PlayerUnknown.

'The past five years of my life has been all about battle royale. From the early days working on a mod to getting the chance to create my vision for a battle royale title,' Greene wrote in a message on his Twitter account. 'It's been an incredible journey and our game has reached heights I never thought possible. Seeing the game grow into what it is today has been a dream come true and I can't thank our fans and the incredible team at PUBG Corporation enough.

'Today, I'm excited to announce that my new day-to-day focus will be heading up a new division of PUBG Corp.: PUBG Special Projects. While I'll remain as a consulting creative director on PUBG, development will be led by Taeseok Jang and the fantastic team I have had the honour of working with over the past three years. They have some great things planned for this year, and I can't wait to share more with you soon!

'Going forward, I'll be based in Amsterdam, rather than Seoul, and focused on building out an entirely new division to focus on research & game development. Online experiences and spaces can connect us in ways I only dreamed of when I first sat in front of a computer some 30 years ago. And it is those dreams of connecting others that is driving our work at PUBG Special Projects.'

Greene has not shared details of precisely what projects he plans to investigate in his new role, beyond the promise of exploring 'new possibilities of interaction and connection within the game space,' but has indicated that interested parties can apply for positions at the new division on the PUGB Corp. careers page