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CEO wants ‘PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ to be more than just a video game

PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS Xbox Game Preview launch trailer
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is currently one of the biggest games in the world on PC, and it’s growing rapidly on Xbox One after being released through the Xbox Preview program. But PUBG Corporation CEO Chang Han Kim doesn’t want to limit the game to just two platforms — in fact, he doesn’t want to limit it to being a game at all.

Speaking to InvenGlobal, Kim said that the game has been doing quite well in Japan and is even managing to grow the relatively small PC and Xbox gaming markets in that country, but he is aware that fans want the game to come to other platforms as well.

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“As it’s going to be an exclusive title on Xbox One for some time, we’d like to focus on completing the Xbox One [version] for now,” he said. If we have the opportunity, the final goal would be to launch the title on every platform.”

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In China, a mobile version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is also in development at Tencent. Tencent’s most recent smash-hit game, Honor of Kings, eventually came to the Nintendo Switch as well, so it’s not impossible for Battlegrounds to eventually come to the console in some form.

Kim added in the interview that he has ambitions for the game to become a full media franchise.

“We want to take part in diverse industries including esports, movies, drama, cartoons, animation, and more,” he said. “In fact, I received a couple of ‘love calls’ from a number of developers in Hollywood and Netflix.”

We’ve seen other game properties get transformed into television shows and films in recent years, with mixed results. Castlevania on Netflix managed to faithfully translate the vampire-hunting series to animation, capturing the tone as well as the characters’ personalities. Others haven’t been so lucky. The film Assassin’s Creed wasn’t able to give us much insight into the fiction of the Templars and the Assassins, while Warcraft and Ratchet & Clank were laughably bad. This year’s Tomb Raider film with Alicia Vikander looks more promising, but we aren’t holding our breath.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is

available now for Xbox One and PC

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available now for Xbox One and PC

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Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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