'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' creator backtracks on campaign mode

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is undoubtedly one of the biggest video games of 2017, having amassed an army of fans thanks to its unparalleled take on survival-based multiplayer. However, fans can perhaps abandon any of their hopes that a single-player campaign might be on its way.

The game’s creator, Brendan Greene — better known as PlayerUnknown — has walked back some of his earlier comments on the potential for single-player content. While he and many fans might want to see such a mode introduced to the experience, the practicalities of development mean that it is unlikely to happen.

“We have no resources,”  Greene told Gamespot. “We have no time. We have no plans to add anything like this to the game. No, no single-player is coming to Battlegrounds.”

Discussion of a potential single-player campaign was fueled when Greene stated a desire to pursue such a mode in an interview in May. Even at that time, he noted that it was rather unlikely to come to pass, because of the limited resources that developer Bluehole has access to.

Still, this isn’t to say that Greene’s aspirations have disappeared completely. His goal for the single-player campaign was to flesh out the lore behind the game’s setting, embellishing upon the basic backstory he wrote to give Bluehole’s artists something to work with.

While a single-player campaign might be out of the question, we could see the narrative component of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds expanded upon in a different manner. Another massive multiplayer game, Overwatch, has built upon its lore a great deal thanks to the animated shorts released by Blizzard, for example. Battlegrounds might not have a similarly recognizable cast of characters, but there is no doubt plenty of players who would like to know more about Greene’s vision for the game’s island setting.

It will be interesting to see whether Bluehole’s thoughts on a single-player campaign change in the future. Resources may be limited right now, but as the game’s audience expands over the coming months, that might not be such a problem if its popularity continues to increase.