Released almost 2 months ago to general indifference and during the massive boom of the PUBG franchise, the competitive shooting game PUBG: Blindspot will not go further than its early access phase. The spin-off’s publisher, Krafton, has just announced that the results are not as expected, whether it’s the number of connections or player feedback. While the main entry in the series, Battlegrounds, continues to thrive, the question arises: does the success of a main episode drive interest in spin-off titles?
Renewal Will Have to Wait
With nearly 300,000 players simultaneously connected to the PC servers, PUBG: Battlegrounds stands strong against an increasingly competitive market. APEX totals about 110,000 simultaneous players, while Warzone struggles to reach 50,000 lately.
For one reason or another, Battlegrounds remains the flagship of the Battle Royale genre, and as any respectable business would do, Krafton aimed to transform its challenging experience into a true franchise. The extraction shooter Black Budget is still awaited, and the top-down competitive shooting game PUBG: Blindspot was released in early access to a lukewarm reception that left Krafton’s leadership disappointed.
Despite this more or less voluntary player response, PUBG: Blindspot at least offered a gaming experience reminiscent of Rainbow Six: Siege and the strategic placement aspects of League of Legends. By introducing agents with unique powers and gadgets and focusing on a tactical approach that emphasizes patience, placement, and strategy, Krafton and ARC Team had all the right ingredients to appeal to a wide audience, backed by the fact that PUBG: Blindspot is free-to-play. However, it seems that an abundance of spin-offs and derived titles from major franchises may have overshadowed the Blindspot experience.
A Grim Fate that Doesn’t Deter Krafton
PUBG: Blindspot closed its doors on March 30 following an inconclusive early access phase. The game’s peak player count reached only 3,251 simultaneous connections on Steam, and after that peak, it struggled to maintain 200 players. Quite modest for a game bearing the PUBG brand.
Was this a misstep by Krafton? A gradual weariness of experiences attempting to emulate big video game successes? Without giving specific answers, one of the development team members, Sequoia Yang, clearly stated that these somewhat disappointing results influenced the decisions.
“We have reached the conclusion that we are no longer able to sustainably deliver the level of experience we wanted to offer in the early access phase […] The ARC team will take some time to regroup, and we hope to return with new experiences in the future.”
Perhaps too ambitious for this initial dip into the PUBG multiverse, Krafton does not seem inclined to revive the game. But fret not, as Black Budget, Valor, and upcoming mobile experiences in the PUBG universe, either directly related or built upon its foundations, will fill the company’s coffers. Otherwise, we risk seeing other games vanish and developers’ hard work tossed aside without a second thought.
