PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will now have to make do without PlayerUnknown himself. Greene will still be a ‘consulting creative director’ on PUBG – soon due for a set of map remasters – but he’s stepping away from active development on PUBG Corp’s namesake to lead a new division at the company’s Amsterdam location: PUBG Special Projects. This team will be working on new, experimental bits of tech and game design.
“We are tasked with exploring, experimenting, and creating new technologies, tools, pipelines, and gameplay,” Greene writes in the announcement, “but for me, it is more than that. Together with a team of game developers and researchers, we will explore new possibilities of interaction and connection within the game space.”
Greene emphasises the importance of online interactions several times in his statement, saying “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.” But you won’t find much more detail than that among the early job listings for the special projects division. Everything references experimentation and iteration – positions like the senior game designer suggest an experimental approach to concepts as basic as player locomotion.
“So,” Greene concludes, “I can’t wait to start this new journey with a new team in a new city, play some games again, and see what the future holds. Thank you all again for your support over the last five years.”
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds effectively kicked off the biggest gaming genre craze of the past few years, and even if the game’s had its ups and downs, it’s exciting to think of what might be next from its principle creator.
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Check out our PUBG guide if you’re still making efforts to track down those chicken dinners – even with PlayerUnknown himself moving onto different things, there’s still a lot left in the PUBG tank.