PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold won’t be needed after the free-to-play switchover
PUBGheld on asa premium gamelonger than I ever would’ve expected, especially as the battle royale landscape has matured, but in 2022, it’s finally shifting to a free-to-play model. Announced last night at The Game Awards 2021, Kraftonplans to turnPUBGinto a free-to-play game on Jul 20, 2025 — that goes for the PC and console versions.
As someone who was out there dropping with the boys early on in Erangel but hasn’t touchedPUBGin years, this trailer is interesting. I’ve clearly missed a lot.
And while it’s easy to underestimate a game likePUBGwhen you aren’t keeping tabs on its community, the game is still big from a global perspective — it’s ultimately stilla top 10 most active gameon Steam based on concurrent player counts. It peaked at 358K players today. (Just so we’re clear — and you know, this figure completely blows my mind to this day — the game has “sold more than 75 million copies across PC and consoles.”)
“Battlegroundsfree-to-play now gives us the opportunity to expand our community even more and bring all the thrills of the game to everyone, while providing new friends, faster matchmaking, and let’s be honest, more targets for our existing player base,” said Krafton.
So, free-to-play: where does that leave players who paid good money forPUBG?
There are a few moving pieces, but the major change to note is thatRanked Modewill not be accessible to free-to-play players — unless they upgrade.PUBGwill have aBasic accountwith “access to most of the game’s features,” as well as aBattlegrounds Plus account, which costs $12.99 (unless you already ownPUBG) and includes:
Again, if you havePUBGbefore the January 10 deadline, you don’t need to pay for Battlegrounds Plus. The process is a little different between PC, PS4, and Xbox One (especially when it comes to the PlayStation Store’s Transition Pack), so it’s worthdouble-checking what you need to doto guarantee access beforePUBGgoes free-to-play.
On top of that, Krafton is also trying to get the word out witha pre-registration websitethat includes in-game items and bonuses. There’s a friend referral incentive, too.
It’s natural to wonder about cheaters whenever a big game is about to become even bigger by opening the free-to-play floodgates. Krafton published a newanti-cheat dev letterthat talks about “quietly, yet fiercely, preparing a number of countermeasures to combat cheat programs.” That said, anti-cheat is “always a never-ending fight.”
In terms of new content, “all of our team’s focus is on the free-to-play service transition,” which has shuffled other things around. “For example, the codename ‘Kiki‘ unfortunately has been postponed to around mid-2022. In addition, as introduced in the Update 14.2 Patch Notes, the next Survivor Pass will be available to you around March 2022.”
Anyone looking to givePUBGanother chance? Or maybe a shot, period?
