PUBG Battlegrounds on Xbox One could one of the biggest exclusive launches of the year for the Microsoft console.
While not boasting a very formidable frontline of unique titles this year, Battlegrounds can be seen as a major boost.
Microsoft recently confirmed that the game is still on track to launch this year, with Aaron Greenberg commenting online: “Amazing to see the success and momentum around @PUBATTLEGROUNDS we are working hard and excited to be publishing this game on @Xbox One this holiday!”
No firm release date has been offered for its launch, although it appears that late November – early December could server as a launch time.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has just been classified by the Australian ratings board, which suggests the PUBG release date is fast approaching.
PUBG was given an MA15+ rating in Australia, the second strongest classification a game can receive.
Interestingly, the classification page reveals the Xbox One news that PUBG will launch with a lengthy new title.
The ratings page lists PUBG as “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds: The Ultimate Life & Death Fight”.
It’s not clear why the already jumbled title needs to be extended any further, although it will help distinguish it from the PC version.
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds already has the record for most concurrent users on Steam, having beaten DOTA 2’s previous high of 1,291,328 users back in September.
And despite the likes of Fortnite trying to steal its crown – not to mention countless server errors – PUBG’s popularity is showing no signs of slowing down.
The game has now passed 2 million concurrent players.
Battlegrounds peaked with 1,96 million players this weekend, before hitting 2 million players yesterday.
But could those new numbers be hurt by its direct rival, Fortnite: Battle Royale?
The new Epic Games launch has gotten off to a very strong start, which has helped by a quick release on PS4 and Xbox One.
The latest news suggests that the free mode and base game has now amassed a large player count in its first two weeks.
Since going free, 10 million players have played the Battle Royale mode, a huge figure which doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.
For those playing Fortnite Battle Royale, the latest update launched by Epic provided stats for the first time, which can be viewed via the Battle Royale home screen.
Unfortunately, one of the downsides of any big patch is that it can bring fresh problems.
So while this latest build fixes a lot of existing issues, it has also apparently hit some players hard.
There are reports of major drops in FPS, as well as server issues since the new update was launched.
Epic were forced to take stats offline, as this decided to be the cause of some of the server issues.
These have since gone live again, although Epic have warned that it may take some time for stats to backfill.