Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds may have been eclipsed on console and PC by the flashier battle royale games it inspired, but the mobile version of the seminal shooter continues to be one of the largest and most successful games on the planet. And now it’s getting a 1.0 update that promises huge boosts to performance and other benefits just in time for a planned $2 million esports tournament set to kick off in November.
The PUBG Mobile team, part of Chinese tech and gaming giant Tencent, says the 1.0 update is scheduled for release on September 8th, and it will bring up to a 30 percent increase in frame rate and a 76 percent decrease in lag, depending on the type of device you’re using. The game is also getting a number of visual and design overhauls, including improvements to the main lobby screen and redesigns of parachuting, sprinting, and other in-game movements.
“Particles, smoke, air blasts, muzzle flashes, and the addition of scope interaction make every shot more realistic,” the team says in a press release. “Upgrades to lighting systems and texture quality bring the vegetation, sky, and water to life. Models and texture quality are also improved to provide a more realistic feel and high-quality experience.”
Starting in November, PUBG Mobile’s esports circuit will start hosting a combined World League and World Championship event, called the PUBG Mobile Global Championship, that will bring together pro players from the Americas, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and China to compete for a prize pool of $2 million. “Due to the global pandemic, an onsite audience may not be possible for PMGC Season Zero, but if it is safe to do so, the league will begin in late November, taking place across multiple studios,” the team says.
Since its release in 2018, PUBG Mobile has grown into one of the most successful games on the planet, out-earning the original PC version with an eye-popping $1.3 billion in revenue last year, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower. The game now has more than 600 million downloads and 50 million active players, not including the Chinese mainland where a rebranded version of the game called Game for Peace (redesigned to appease China’s strict censorship and content laws) reportedly has an additional 150 million active players.
Author: Nick Statt.
Source: Theverge
