From Battlegrounds to Futurescape: The Evolution Beyond PUBG

PlayerUnknown‘s Battlegrounds, commonly referred to as PUBG, has consistently attracted hundreds of thousands of gamers since it was launched in 2017. The battle royale achieved sales of 40 million copies within its first year, and reached upwards of 3 million concurrent players on PC via Steam back in 2018 — a record that remains unbroken to this day, closely followed yet still outpaced by titles like Counter-Strike 2 (2023), Black Myth: Wukong (2024), and Palworld (2024).

PUBG resulted from the partnership between game developer Krafton and creator Brendan Greene (commonly known as PlayerUnknown), who headed the project. Greene subsequently left Krafton to establish PlayerUnknown Productions in 2019. Instead of another iteration of the battle royale format, this new studio is focused on multiple projects, prominently a survival game entitled Prologue: Go Wayback!, envisioned as a part of a larger concept. The ultimate goal, Artemis, is designed to be the apex of internal technology capable of accommodating millions of players in extensive worlds simultaneously.

Recently, Rolling Stone conversed with Brendan Greene regarding PlayerUnknown Productions’ three-game strategy, how the studio embraces the metaverse concept for Artemis, and the influences from the survival genre for Prologue: Go Wayback!, ranging from Don’t Starve Together (2016) to broader walking simulators.

A three-game strategy

PlayerUnknown Productions is simultaneously developing several projects. Prologue: Go Wayback! and Preface: Undiscovered World are distinct experiences, yet they serve as trials for the studio’s proprietary technology that will eventually support Artemis. The ultimate aim is for this technology to create immense virtual environments that can host millions of participants. But what does all of this signify? More importantly, how does Greene plan to actualize his ambitious vision?

“The three-game strategy initiated with the thought that I cannot construct this vast world all at once,” Greene mentions. “Attempting to create Earth-scale environments with millions of players and numerous activities is simply too ambitious to accomplish simultaneously. Thus, we considered, ‘Alright, let’s commence on a smaller scale.’”

The studio began utilizing the Unity game engine before transitioning to Unreal in 2022. One of the initial challenges was to assess the terrain of the world, leading to the decision of making Prologue: Go Wayback! a survival title. This genre, spearheaded by games like Minecraft (2011) and Rust (2013), involves players collecting resources across various biomes to manage their hunger, build shelters, and endure challenges. The captivating aspect of these games lies in the generation of a fresh world each time players embark on a session. Initially, the PlayerUnknown Productions team managed to construct a 100 by 100 kilometer world, which has served as a bedrock for ongoing game concepts to further explore.

Greene believes that the three-game strategy allows the team to progress towards the bigger vision incrementally, each phase contributing “another component of the larger puzzle” leading to Artemis. Establishing the terrain, incorporating multiplayer on a small scale before escalating it gradually, and experimenting with interactions and game mechanics later on. “We’re just elevating it, step by step, testing each stage prior to advancing,” he notes.

For titles like Rust or DayZ (2013), both were initially introduced in early access. Their full releases took about five years for completion. Early access provides the opportunity to experience a game before its official introduction, with studios offering updates over time and enhancing mechanics based on player input. Greene and his team are adopting a similar method, engaging the community and considering feedback for existing and forthcoming projects. The key distinction is that they are dividing development into multiple titles, instead of, for instance, releasing Artemis in early access and proceeding from there.

Preface: Undiscovered World, which received a technical demonstration on Dec. 5, is designed to be the initial version of the studio’s proprietary engine, referred to as Melba. Over time, the studio aims to eventually cease utilizing Unreal as a foundational engine and shift to developing with Melba, subsequently transferring the systems created for previous titles into Artemis.

These ambitions, however, aren’t devoid of experimentation. Greene mentions that, a year prior, he was concerned about Prologue: Go Wayback!, as it wasn’t in a playable condition. Now, it’s slated for a mid-2025 launch, and the insights collected from players engaging with the Preface demo are proving valuable in shaping the game’s evolution.

“I possessed a very capable development team, but I lacked leadership that could provide me with a practical perspective on how to accomplish it, right?,” Greene states. “I had some exceedingly intelligent individuals, but they were simply in unsuitable positions. So, approximately a year and a half ago, I was introduced to David Polfeldt, former managing director at Massive Entertainment, and he and I engaged in extensive discussions, and he enlightened me regarding how these entities are constructed or the methods for forming effective teams and how to optimally utilize the team we had to realize my vision.”

In addition to Polfeldt, who began working with PlayerUnknown Productions as a senior consultant, Greene appointed CEO Kim Nordstrom and CTO (Chief Technology Officer) Laurent Gorga. As Greene elaborates, they all played vital roles in understanding the long-term vision and formulating the most effective strategy to realize the three-game initiative.

“They essentially supported that, which was reassuring because then I wasn’t delusional anymore,” he expresses. “I thought, ‘Alright, maybe this is overly ambitious, perhaps this is insane.’ But then I received affirmation from some highly experienced individuals within the gaming industry saying, ‘No, if you can succeed in this, it would be remarkable, and I genuinely want to assist with this.’”

For Melba to generate various extensive planets whenever someone initiates a session, the engine employs machine learning (ML) technology in conjunction with Natural Earth data. The former is a subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI) — essentially, ML utilizes algorithms that learn from data to forecast outcomes. In the context of these games, it would mean instructing the engine to generate mountains, with the engine understanding, based on prior input from developers, how mountains should appear, along with the biomes and terrains that must accompany them. Conversely, Natural Earth is a publicly available map dataset that enables users to create large-scale maps.

“When I commenced, it was simply intended to be a vast world, correct?,” Greene states, “100 by 100 kilometers. And then I discovered how to accomplish that. You could generate any scale of world, right? Because it’s not reliant on humans; you’re utilizing machine learning technology to create it. Thus, it’s generated instead of crafted, correct? We still involve artists to style and somewhat contour the world, but the world itself is generated.”

At a similar point, Greene started to delve into the concept of the metaverse — a broad term denoting interconnected virtual realms, primarily advocated by companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) surrounding technologies like virtual and augmented realities. However, Greene didn’t grasp the practical applications at that time, which appeared as a cluster of IP bubbles that would eventually connect to someone. For him, it’s more about a 3D internet, providing individuals with a world engine that they can access and distribute, unbound by a singular authority.

“That’s the reason Preface is open, in that we are permitting individuals to modify it and tinker with the code, as it is not encrypted because that’s how I believe the internet originated,” Greene shares. “It was merely a very basic protocol that people adapted and manipulated, which led to the creation of the internet, right? Ultimately, I think the metaverse must be an open framework that everyone can enter to create their own realms or explore our worlds or any other worlds.”

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With Melba, the crew is attempting to devise a means for world generation to occur locally on a user’s PC, instead of depending on distant servers. The challenge involves ensuring that a considerable surge of players can access these worlds, rather than just those with superior internet bandwidth. Greene anticipates this will take “ten years, possibly 15,” with the ultimate aim being a scenario where Melba can effortlessly create digital environments that are accessible to all. “I seek hundreds of thousands, millions of players congregating in one spot, sharing a concert or something, and a server client will never accomplish that,” he states.

Debates regarding the metaverse and blockchain frequently go together. In 2022, developer Mojang Studios announced that it would not allow NFTs or blockchain technologies in Minecraft. That same year, during an interview with Hit Points, Greene discussed blockchain in connection to Artemis as a digital environment that requires an economy. “I firmly believe you should be able to extract value from a digital space,” he remarked. Some media outlets that reported the story claimed that Artemis would incorporate the previously mentioned technologies. Two years later, when asked to confirm if Artemis would indeed feature NFTs, Greene replied in a similarly unclear manner, considering the 15-year-long endeavor.

“No, oh no,” Greene chuckles. “I was queried about my stance on blockchain, and then the following day it was like, ‘PUBG guy developing a blockchain game.’ And I thought, ‘That’s a no.’ Yes, I happened to mention blockchain, but what I referred to was more like a financial tool or a financial layer within a digital space, it’s an intriguing piece of technology.”

Greene elaborates: “Be it the current version or something in the future, I have no certainty, but it’s a digital ledger and that is advantageous. And that was a point where I hadn’t even contemplated NFTs or such, like integrating those— for me that’s merely a tool that could be utilized later on for specific applications. But genuinely, it’s not a pressing matter at present since we need the world and we need it functional and we need engagement, and we need, you know, all these aspects. We also need to establish marketplaces and all those various layers you must integrate into a digital environment. Thus, it’s indeed time-consuming, yet we possess time to dedicate to it. So that’s the origin of that thought.”

Not trying to reinvent the survival genre wheel

The premise of Prologue: Go Wayback! is straightforward: a player must traverse from point A to point B, engaging with a weather station to request their rescue. Maps span eight by eight kilometers, and the challenges are tied to weather conditions. If it rains, surfaces become slippery and rivers rise, for instance. This was logical for the team, taking into account that the aim behind Prologue is to serve as a testing ground for the terrain system that will eventually be refined for Artemis.

“We’re not assembling a team of 120 individuals to conclude the game,” Greene indicates. “The Prologue team is fairly compact. It consists of around 30 members. Therefore, we’re genuinely striving to keep the numbers minimal because that’s the challenge we’re aiming to address here—creating worlds without
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Greene mentions that he doesn’t engage much with survival titles and has a deeper interest in emergent gameplay overall, where players navigate a procedurally generated landscape, revealing unknown hostile challenges. “The game will certainly be difficult, and it could turn into a monotonous walking simulator,” he explains. “However, my goal here is to explore the environment and determine if we can genuinely produce millions of interactive maps, as well as countless playable maps, right? This offers the player a distinct experience each time.”

Upon inquiring if the team aims to introduce fresh concepts to the survival genre, which has reached a level of saturation, Greene emphasizes the primary intention of demonstrating that Prologue can deliver an enjoyable experience using straightforward mechanics rather than reinventing established methods.

“We’re innovating how the terrain is created, sure,” he states. “However, the other mechanics are somewhat, you know, we build upon the foundation laid by others, as they say; similar approaches have been executed numerous times, and we’re not attempting to recreate them here, as that’s not the reason we’re undertaking Prologue.”

Anticipating the launch of Prologue in 2025, the enthusiasm regarding the Preface: Undiscovered World demo is giving Greene optimism that some individuals are committed to the long-term vision. “I’m not certain how exciting it can become and I’m unsure what we can achieve with it,” he admits, “but we need numerous perspectives here since making all decisions ourselves is simply not the appropriate approach.”

“And I believe it’s not the right way to construct, well, the internet or the metaverse either; you can’t develop it solely based on your vision,” he continues. “You must incorporate many voices because the world is an incredibly diverse place. Thus, creating something that’s ethical, equitable, and functions for everyone requires time and the inclusion of every voice. Therefore, we begin with Prologue, we start on a small scale with a limited community, and we simply continue to expand. And as long as we receive the support needed to do this, then we will be successful.”