'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' Finally Leaves Early Access

Massively popular battle royale darling PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has finally, officially left its Early Access status on PC and entered version 1.0. It’s back online after a long period of scheduled maintenance, too, so you can get back to working on securing your winner winner, chicken dinner. It’s just a shinier, more official chicken dinner now.

The road to PUBG’s debut was paved with some pretty big frustrations, however. The game spent just nine months in Early Access, considerably less time than some other titles, and while that was a relatively smooth period of time, the launch was fraught with server issues that plagued the game's long-awaited debut.

The official PUBGaccount initially announced planned server maintenance that would begin at 4pm PT on December 21, which was two hours earlier than the maintenance was originally planned. It was scheduled to end at 11pm PT, but the PUBG Twitter account didn't end up announcing that the game had gone live until 12:01am PT.

The big 1.0 release had been announced for December 20, so the official launch ended up being delayed for a good while, with servers down for all players until the maintenance concluded. Players lost a good chunk of play time in anticipation of the update's debut, but it gave everyone some time to recharge, as it were, as the game's leaderboards were wiped entirely in preparation for the 1.0 release.  

The jump to PUBG 1.0 includes much more than a change in version, however, as it introduces new mechanics like vaulting and climbing as well as a new desert map called Miramar. The new 3D Replay feature also allows you to check out just who took you out after you're killed to see not only where the lethal blow came from, but who delivered it as well.

It’s a time of celebration, as should be evident, as the game also managed to hit 30 million combined players across both Xbox One and PC. That  should come as no surprise, since PUBGmanaged to sell 10 million copies since its Early Access debut. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has experienced staggering growth ever since it came on the scene, and with its arrival on Xbox One and breaking free of Steam Early Access, it's got plenty of room to grow and evolve. It will certainly be interesting to see where it's at in the next six months.