PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will head to Xbox One before the end of the year as part of the Game Preview program. But the Steam release of v1.0 will just narrowly squeeze inside the game’s 2017 launch window, despite undergoing its first round of public tests later this week.
Late last month, Bluehole and PUBG Corporation announced three rounds of public testing for the launch build of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds , each emphasizing a different component of the massive 1.0 patch. Given the “early November” window for testing, many assumed we could see the launch build of PUBG by the end of the month. But PUBG Corp. now says fans shouldn’t expect the game to leave Early Access until late December. While it’s probably safe to assume it won’t be the final week of 2017 -- many studios are closed during the winter holidays -- we could still be six or seven weeks away from seeing the desert map and dynamic vaulting outside of PUBG ’s test environment.
Xbox One owners are a bit closer to joining the Battlegrounds community. PUBG will make its console debut in early December. It’ll be part of the Game Preview program, which means you can expect the same kinds of bugs and exploits we saw in Early Access, but at least hacking is significantly less common on Xbox Live. There’s no word on what will or won’t be in the first Xbox One build; however, Xbox owners will have the option to buy three platform-exclusive cosmetic packs: the PUBG Warrior Pack, PUBG Accessory Pack and PUBG Tracksuit Pack. All three will be available for a limited time after the game is listed on the Xbox Store.
Bluehole and PUBG Corp. also confirmed another insane sales milestone for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. As of this week, more than 18 million copies of the game have been sold. And it’s not even available on consoles yet. While it’s certainly great news for staff and investors, those sorts of numbers probably aren’t going to help with the growing pains PUBG Corp. CEO Chang Han Kim mentioned when we spoke earlier this year.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available in Early Access. The launch build is expected to hit Steam in late December and a Xbox One port is currently slated for Dec. 12.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds news in 2017 and as long as PUBG Corp. supports PUBG in the years ahead.
