Battle Royale games are on top right now. The genre has long surpassed MOBA in popularity: there are hundreds of “royal battles” on the market. But they are still far from the popularity of casinos, including the Dafabet casino.
There are probably a dozen successful and even a few good ones among Battle Royale games. But the first among equals is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Let’s remember how the game began, which marked the beginning of the whole genre.
The Player Is Unknown
It all started, as it often happens in the industry, with amateur fashion. PUBG author Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Green, a photographer and designer, loved two things: military simulations and teenage dystopias. The fruit of this sinful love was a “modification to modification” — Battle Royale for the extremely popular at that time online zombie survival game DayZ, in turn based on the tactical shooter ArmA 2.
The title of Kosyun Takami’s book, which inspired Green to create DayZ: Battle Royale, will be guessed at the first attempt even by someone who has never read anything outside of the school curriculum in his life and has not seen a single movie with Takeshi Kitano. In the novel “Battle Royale” and its film adaptation, the rules of the game were described long before Mr. Green took up the case. All he had to do was replace conditional Asia with equally conditional Eastern Europe, schoolchildren with mismatched freaks, forbidden sectors with an ever—narrowing circular security zone, add a parachute jump as a cheerful start and reduce the match time from three days to thirty minutes.
Another work that influenced the creation of Battle Royale was, oddly enough, the Hunger Games series. According to Green, it was the tape starring Jennifer Lawrence that inspired him to bring the ideas floating in his head to life. Initially, he even planned to distribute the equipment the same way as in the movie: just pile all the weapons in a pile in the center of the arena, and then let the players figure it out for themselves. Fortunately, this idea was eventually abandoned, and the most intense moment (the fight in a tiny clearing) eventually logically moved from the beginning to the end of the round.
The Origin of PUBG
The Battle Royale mod, created by Brendan Greene, was designed to address the key issues he saw in DayZ. DayZ, an add-on for ArmA 2, focused more on players fighting zombies than each other. However, Greene found the slow pace and predictable zombie AI less thrilling than he had hoped. Games like Counter-Strike, with their small maps and high speeds, didn’t appeal to him either.
Greene wanted something different. He envisioned a game where players would face off against each other on a large map. With random equipment placements to keep things unpredictable. This way, players couldn’t memorize the map and fall into repetitive patterns. His creation focused on the excitement of live player confrontations, bringing a fresh and dynamic experience to the gaming world. This vision laid the foundation for what would eventually become PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).
The Rise of PUBG
After leaving his modding days behind, Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene moved from Brazil to South Korea to start a new project. Inspired by gaming legends like Sid Meier and American McGee, he embarked on creating a game named after himself: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).
The Korean publisher Bluehole recognized the potential in Greene’s idea, seeing a fresh and exciting concept for the Asian market. Their gamble paid off big time. In 2017, PUBG was released on Steam Early Access and took the gaming world by storm. The game quickly topped charts and broke records, selling its first million copies in just a week. Within a bit over a month, it hit five million copies and reached a peak of three million concurrent players.
PUBG captivated players with its thoughtful gameplay. It struck a perfect balance—challenging but not too complex, requiring both strategic thinking and tactical execution. The success of PUBG showcased the innovative spirit of Bluehole Ginno Games and cemented Greene’s place in gaming history.
