PUBG going free-to-play for a week alongside name change

Playerunknown's Battlegrounds is going free-to-play for a week, and receiving a name change.

As first reported by PCGamesN earlier today on August 6, PUBG is temporarily going free-to-play later this month. The free-to-play week will be commencing next week, starting on August 10 and is going to run until August 16, which will also coincide with Kpop mega-group Blackpink's crossover content launching in the game, with decals on the airship and buildings.

This free-to-play week for PUBG actually lines up with previous claims from a reputable leaker. Last month in July, a leaker claimed that PUBG would be holding a temporary free-to-play session in August, to gauge player interest in the battle royale game transforming into a completely free-to-play game forever. The confirmation of the free-to-play session would now appear to lend significant credence to that past claim.

Elsewhere for the battle royale shooter is a name change, as we previously highlighted. The new name for Playerunknown's Battlegrounds going forward is "PUBG: Battlegrounds," which means the full name of the game is now officially Playerunknown's Battlegrounds: Battlegrounds. We can pretty easily see the game still being fondly referred to as "PUBG," by its dedicated player base, though.

PUBG actually just got a lot bigger last month, with the launch of the new Taego map. This map is 8km by 8km, making it the biggest map in the game for a fair few years, and giving players a vast new area to explore. Next year, the expanded universe surrounding PUBG is going to expand in an entirely different way, when The Callisto Protocol releases, a new horror game set in the PUBG universe from several veterans of the Dead Space series.

For more on the latest map to hit the battle royale game, head over to our PUBG Taego map guide for a complete walkthrough.