It’s been a bumpy ride for PlayUnknown’s Batllegrounds fans. After spending quite some time in early access, the game’s PC version requires a bleeding edge gaming rig to play, while the Xbox One port still has its fair share of bugs. In a world dominated by Fortnite, fans of the original, more realistic battle royale can’t seem to catch a break. Unless, of course, they’re playing on mobile.
Developed by Tencent, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile seemingly has all of its ducks in a row. Earlier this week Tencent launched a beefy content update for the mobile game that added a War Mode, Achievements, Clans, and a new sniper rifle.
#pubgmobile070 is now live on both iOS and Android! Clans, War Mode, Achievements, SLR, Achievement system and more! Parachute in: https://t.co/FA20ukzKl1 pic.twitter.com/2S9jtiX8QK
— PUBG MOBILE (@PUBGMOBILE) July 24, 2018
And that’s just the most current edition. Betas for future PUBG Mobile updates include even more advanced features. In a Reddit thread posted just a few days ago, Reddit user kkultimate shared screenshots that showed off PUBG Mobile‘s upcoming Night Mode.
Having played over two hundred hours of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on Xbox, it’s simultaneously frustrating and fascinating to see the extent that Tencent is running circles around Bluehole in terms of development time. While my Xbox friends still have trouble parachuting without glitching into a building, mobile players have access to features like War Mode and Night Mode; features that are far down the pipeline to people that paid for the Xbox version.
What makes this so puzzling is the extent that Microsoft has pushed PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds onto Xbox gamers. Not only has Microsoft released a PUBG Xbox One bundle, they’ve also run several high publicized advertising campaigns, most recently, giving away a school bus based on the game.
Having pivoted to PC, most of my PUBG gripes have been settled. However, for the sake of those still relying on the Xbox edition for their battle royale fix, I only hope Bluehole can follow the example set by Tencent.