When it comes to "battle royale" games, it's believed that most people will think of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) at first. Since its release in 2017, PUBG has once been extremely popular all over the world and dominated the gaming scene. Besides making huge profits on the PC platform, its mobile version, PUBG Mobile, is also very hot. It even became the number one on the global mobile game revenue list in November this year, showing remarkable profitability.
Surprisingly for netizens, recently, Krafton (formerly BluePoint Games), the developer of PUBG, officially announced at The Game Awards 2021 that starting from January 12, 2022, PUBG will stop being sold and will be officially transformed into a free-to-play game.
Once the news came out, it immediately set off a stir in multiple player communities both at home and abroad. A large number of "battle royale" game enthusiasts expressed their views on this matter in the communities. Here comes the question: Why did PUBG decide to fully transform into a free-to-play game when its fourth anniversary was just around the corner? For ordinary players, what impact will the transformation of PUBG into a free-to-play game bring?
Free games, paid memberships
In fact, this is not the first time that PUBG has launched the free-to-play feature.
Starting from the year before last, PUBG has basically maintained the rhythm of holding a free trial event once a year. Four months ago, PUBG launched the free-to-play event again. At that time, some insiders revealed that the development team would observe players' feedback through this free event to prepare for completely transforming PUBG into a free-to-play game later. It's just that many players probably didn't expect that this day would come so soon.
For players who haven't purchased the game, the transformation of PUBG into a free-to-play game is indeed a good thing. It means that as long as they wait for about one month, everyone can play this game for free. However, for players who have already bought the game, it's unacceptable that PUBG, which was originally a paid game priced at 98 yuan for a one-time purchase, has suddenly turned into a free game stuffed with in-game purchases.
Therefore, if Krafton wants to achieve a smooth transition, the first thing it needs to consider is naturally the veteran players who have already spent money. According to the official introduction, starting from January 12, PUBG players will be divided into two types of accounts. Ordinary players can obtain a free basic account upon entry and can enjoy most of the game's content. Meanwhile, users can upgrade to a paid account by purchasing "Battlegrounds Plus". By paying $12.99 at one time, they can get additional in-game currency, ranking modes, custom matchmaking functions and other rewards.
As compensation, players who have previously purchased the game will be automatically upgraded to Plus paid accounts and will also receive a set of "Battlefield Veteran" skins at that time.
Then the question is, how have players reacted to this?
"Discontent" is probably the word that best describes players both at home and abroad at this moment. According to Xiaolei's investigation, within four hours after the official announcement on December 10 that PUBG would be transformed into a free-to-play game, the game received nearly three times as many negative reviews on the Steam platform. As shown in the figure, even though the official has offered certain compensation, many players are still very dissatisfied that the official didn't give prior notice.
On social media, we can also see exactly the same scenario. Under the relevant Weibo posts of well-known game bloggers, many players are venting their dissatisfaction with this game. And below the tweet where Krafton announced this news, there are also numerous foreign players expressing their disappointment. Judging from these reactions, the free version of PUBG hasn't been welcomed by too many players.
There are mainly three reasons why players have a negative attitude towards the news that PUBG will be transformed into a free-to-play game.
Firstly, players feel that their interests have been damaged and that they have been betrayed by the official. For example, in June 2018, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: Battle Royale, which had never been discounted before, saw its first price reduction. Unexpectedly, on the day of the special offer, PUBG received a large number of negative reviews on Steam. Many players said that they had purchased the game because they thought the developer would not easily reduce the price. They didn't expect the official to suddenly announce the discount, which led to the interests of players who had just bought the game being damaged.
The sudden discount and price reduction, as well as the transformation into a free-to-play game without any warning, are essentially acts of neglecting veteran players in order to attract new ones. To some extent, it's understandable that these veteran players leave a lot of negative reviews in the comment section to dissuade others.
Secondly, players are worried about the future game environment. The reason why PUBG has fallen into such a situation today has a lot to do with the rampant use of cheats. Given that the quality of players varies greatly, after the game becomes free-to-play, a large number of players using cheats are expected to emerge. Moreover, the fact that using cheats costs nothing will make these cheaters even more brazen. If the anti-cheat technology fails to keep up in a timely manner, the once chaotic battles with numerous cheaters might stage a comeback.
Thirdly, players are concerned about the future game content. Originally, PUBG was a very straightforward online game with a paid one-time purchase model. However, when the price was reduced for the first time in 2018, the developer added the "Battle Pass" system, turning this game into a rare online game that combines one-time purchase with in-game purchases. With such a precedent, no one can guarantee exactly what kind of in-game purchase content the developer will add after the game becomes free-to-play.