PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds renamed PUBG: Battlegrounds, gets free-to-play week
The free-to-play period is temporary for now.
Jamie Moorcroft-Sharp 
Image via KRAFTON
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is getting a name change to PUBG: Battlegrounds. This name change is part of a consistent brand that will be present throughout the franchise. Therefore, games will be named accordingly as they release. PUBG: New State instead of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds: New State, for example.
The name change has been implemented across Steam, the PlayStation Store, and Microsoft Store on Xbox. The change is also reflected on the official Twitter account for the game. In a recent statement, a representative from Krafton PR explained that this rebrand is the first step in expanding the PUBG brand into new experiences within its universe. “Additional titles in the franchise will carry the PUBG name, as you see with our upcoming game, PUBG: New State.”
In addition to this name change, the game is getting a free-to-play week around the same time as the Blackpink collaboration. The event allows players to pick up time-limited cosmetics based on the K-pop sensation from August 4 on PC and August 12 on consoles. In a recent trailer for the event, however, there’s a mention of a free-to-play week taking place between August 10 to 16.
The mention of a free-to-play week comes at 1:21. Prominent PUBG: Battlegrounds leaker PlayerIGN posted on Twitter that the developers have been trying to make the game free-to-play for a while now. They explain that the game was meant to go free-to-play in 2019, but the player response from the test at the time was less than desirable.
Next week’s free-to-play period is only temporary, but PlayerIGN believes it’s another test to gauge player interest. If there’s more uptake from this test, then the game could go permanently free-to-play. With the Blackpink collaboration running simultaneously, it’s easy to imagine a decent influx of new players.
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