PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will offer complete match replays when the game exits Early Access later this week, according to the company tapped to provide the service. Part of the tech powering the service is already featured on the test servers, where players have been trying out PUBG’s new killcam, but the rest of the replay functionality goes live Dec. 20.
Bluehole and PUBG Corporation will partner with Minkonet, a three-year-old software company with offices in Seoul and Los Angeles, to provide a shockingly powerful camera suite on launch day. Minkonet’s proprietary recording software won’t just provide video footage of a player’s last match, though it will certainly do that too. The company says players will also be able to watch each round from the perspective of other PUBG players or roam the battlefield as an invisible observer to provide commentary on all the action unfolding around the map. A corresponding press release, featuring a statement from Minkonet Co-founder and CEO Peter Kim, says we can expect four cameras at launch: Cinemax, Esports, Replay Highlight and Streamer Cam.
“Building replay systems for battle royale, open world and massively multiplayer online games that typically feature huge maps and many objects interacting in real time presents many technical challenges,” Kim said. “We know expectations from the community are high and our team worked side-by-side with the PUBG developers to design and deliver a never-before-seen, immersive replay experience that is sure to deliver countless hours of ‘wow-factor’ moments and shareable content.”
A recent update on PUBG’s Steam page confirmed a map selection feature is also headed to Bluehole’s battle royale shooter. The dev team notes that, combined with players camera/team queue options, there will technically be 12 different game queues when Battlegrounds leaves Early Access. That number will continue to expand as the previously teased snow map and any other new environments come to PUBG after launch. It may not be the same level of customization as we’ve seen from custom games. But it’s a start.
If you're not interested in playing PUBG on the test servers, but want to see Miramar before the map debuts on Wednesday, check out the footage from the Game Awards. Then head down to the comments and let us know what you hope to see added to Battlegrounds after launch.
For more on the future of PUBG revisit Brendan Greene’s thoughts on mod support, parity between the game’s graphics settings and the potential addition of a cinematic camera suite. We also spoke with PUBG Corp. CEO Chang Han Kim about the lack of rocket launchers in PUBG and the growing pains that come with selling a breakout hit.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available in Early Access. The game launches Dec. 20.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds news in 2018 and as long as PUBG Corp. supports PUBG in the years ahead.
