PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is leaving Xbox Game Preview to become a 'Full Product Release,' or 1.0, on September 4. With that comes new things including full Achievements, the smaller Sanhok map, the team-based War mode, an Event Pass and microtranstations.
However, leaving Xbox's early access Game Preview doesn't mean the end of development according to Microsoft executive producer Nico Bihary: "I would say, we’re never really going to be finished with PUBG. We’re not going to stop working on things like performance, we’re not going to stop creating new content. But what I would say is that this is the best time to jump in if you want to play PUBG on console. The game is running better than it ever has, we feel very good about the quality of the experience."
So leaving Game Preview doesn't mean the game will stop evolving and improving according to Nico. Instead the move to Full Release is more about hitting key benchmarks. "What’s the stability of the game feel like? How is the frame rate performance experientially?' says Bihary.
While there's a lot of new content coming (more on that in a second), the big thing arriving with PUBG 1.0 will be achievements. "As soon as you flip it on September the 4th and take the update you’re going to start get achievements for all of the things that you’ve accomplishing during the Xbox Game Preview period" explains Bihary.
Then there's the other stuff coming to Xbox. Like War Mode, a more team-based set up with respawns, where two sides compete to score points rather than survive. But the big addition will be Sanhok. The new map is a smaller area that creates much faster matches and will introduce new weapons and vehicles, as well as dynamic weather for the Xbox. And, like on PC, Sanhok's introduction will bring with it PlayerUnknown's Event Pass which will let you unlock and collect items by completing challenges.
While the original Event Pass had some early issues, that hopefully won't be a problem for Xbox. "There was a lot of learnings that they got from the Sanhok Event Pass on PC and they’re going to apply those learnings in a meaningful way to the Xbox version," explains Bihary, "whether that’s tweaks and tunings, or changes to content making it more console focused".
As part of the new release, the retail version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will come with DLC, including "an exclusive collection of clothing and accessories inspired by Xbox brand colors". So that gets you things like a white branded hoodie and an Xbox skinned parachute. That's all included on the disk, or as download from the in-game lobby both for new players and people who already own the game.
Thinking of giving it a go? we've got a huge PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds guide to help you out.
