PUBG Esports Being Developed for Both Xbox and Mobile Platforms

The largest event in the history of the young esports scene for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, July 25th in Berlin, Germany with the PUBG Global Invitational 2018 (PGI 2018) where 20 of the best professional teams in the world will be competing for the lion's share of the $2,000,000 prize pool. While the professional scene of PUBG up until now and the future of PUBG esports beginning with the PGI 2018 have a major focus on PC, it was revealed during the PGI 2018 media day that PUBG Corp. is currently working on developing the esports scenes for both Xbox and Mobile platforms. 

Speaking at the PGI 2018 media day, PUBG Corp. CEO Changhan Kim explained the company's current work and ideals regarding the development and nurturing of competitive scenes for the game on the Xbox One console and Mobile platforms during the presentation for title's current five year plan for growing its professional scene. 

“Esports for Xbox is being prepared. For PC you need to gather into a single venue for a competition but for Mobile you can be anywhere to compete, you don’t need to be together at the same event. For example you can visit a university and anyone with a Mobile phone can compete. We will have tournaments for more platforms in the future but first and foremost we will focus on PC," said Kim. 

This would be one of the first times that a major title in the esports industry has committed to developing an esports scene for a game on multiple platforms, as the majority of games have chosen PC to be their main focus for the development of a game's professional scene when there are multiple available.The exception for this has been a few franchises, such as Call of Duty and others, who have chosen to have consoles as the main platform for their esports scenes. 

However, Kim did not give a timetable for when the competitive scenes for PUBG on Xbox and Mobile would begin to kick into high gear and explained that PUBG Corp's current and most important focus is on PC.

This is not too surprising considering that the Xbox version of PUBG is still not very well optimized and would be considered by the majority of players as unfit to be ready for any kind of competition where a substantial amount of money is on the line, while the esports scenes for Mobile titles are still working to find the perfect format for success. 

More information on the five year plan that PUBG Corp. has to further develop the esports scene of PUBG can be found in our full recap article here.