PUBG Mobile in India

INDIAN MOBILE GAMING INDUSTRY

The Indian youngsters occupy about 60% of the population , most of them use their smartphones
for playing games. In the contrary the percentage of PC users for playing games is negligible
when compared to smartphone users .The inception of mobile gaming in India happened when
Nokia introduced 1100/1280 with a grayscale display which offered the snake game , cricket and
carom games which became instantly famous among the users.

This was followed by the next phase of the mobile gaming industry where in the users could
download the games from websites and stores .Most of these mobile games were "Java based".
Games namely Tanks Pro ,Spiderman , Tony Hawk’s Downhill Hump were the chart toppers.
These games had different versions for different display quality phones and which occupied not
more then 1MB of phone storage .Nokia then released S60 powered by Symbian. S60 was the
"iPhone" for that period. Most of the app makers globally started creating apps exclusively for
S60. Games like FIFA ,Brothers of Arms ,Prince of Persia gained lot of popularity due to its
graphics and challenging levels android software was a work-in-progress in this period.

Few years later, android software entered the market of mobile phones. Android software entered
Indian market via the sales of Samsung's economical “Galaxy Y”. From this stage mobile
gaming standards was influenced by 2 major trends:

A.Touchscreen displays: Android software was built with by default touchscreen sensitivity so
games and other applications were required to be touchscreen friendly.

B. Consistent internet connection : Games on Android phones offered better graphics and hence
were larger in proportions. These games even introduced multiplayer feature . So network
service providers had a booming demand which needed expansion in order to facilitate the
increased data traffic.
Some of the most popular games in the market of mobile gaming in recent times:

A.Teen Patti :Is an online card game which will directly take you to a game table provided you
have a consistent internet connection .For your first game you will be awarded Rupees 20,000 to
start playing after which you will have to use your card skills for earning and loosing money.

B. Candy Crush :It is puzzle game where in you have to beat the timer set to advance to the next
level .Here you will have to simply match three same coloured candies which will reward you
boosters and points and you will be provided with 5 lives which will automatically get refilled
after stipulated hours.

C. Mini Militia : It is an online cartoon themed graphics game which is very addictive .It
facilitates multiplayer gaming with up to 6 players online or 12 using nearest wi-fi connection.
Some of the weapons offered namely are shotguns , flamethrowers and snipers.

D. Pokemon Go: This game facilitates the migration between the real and virtual world of
Pokémon. As you navigate around your local places your smartphone let you know when you're
near a Pokémon by vibrating. Your opponent will have to physically be closer to you to play a
game. You can even challenge player for a game from anywhere.

E.PUBG Mobile: Is a game similar to Hunger Games where you start possessing with anything
and have to hunt for weapons and equipments. The game is basically the survival of the fittest
where in you have to compete with 99 players(you being the 100th player) on an 8 x 8 km island.
It offers solo ,duo and squad modes of gameplay.
 THE INCEPTION OF PUBG MOBILE

PUBG Mobile is the result to the successful launch of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)
game whichis available on gaming media like Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation4.
The game is designed by Brendan Greene and developed by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of
Blue Hole viz. a South Korean gaming company. PUBG was launched inMarch,2017, in a
month’s time it had millions of copies sold and became the most popular online multiplayer PC
game. In February 2018 ,Tencent, a game developing company from China in collaboration with
the PUBG Corporation developed the mobile version of PUBG and launched it on IOS’s 'app-
store' and on Android’s 'play-store'.

!
PUBG Mobile has acquired users at an incredible rate.The game when entered the market of
large scale online survival games it had to face market leaders namely "Minecraft ,Arma 2,
Fortnite and Dota 2 " but due to it's uniqueness it instantly became the best-seller with over 100
million downloads by mid-2018 as it had redefined the battle royal genre of gaming and had
become a significant member of the 'pop-culture.'

The game starts with exactly hundred players travelling in a freight aircraft which is flying
closely on a large island. The players now have to select on which part of the island they want to
land with their parachutes. After landing, they will have to hunt for ammunition, shield, first-aid
packages, energy drinks etc. in deserted buildings and houses aiming to survive until a ticker in
the top-right area of the game's display announces them as the lone- survivor. The players are
involved in a last-man standing knockout match and the winner of the game is rewarded a title of
fictitious chicken dinner.

After launching the game for the first time the user will have to select their player's attire in the
game. The users can also can change the type of controls and game layout (user interface) forther
convenience .Once the users play some matches they will be rewarded with various in-game
points, known as 'battle points'. These battle points can be gained by completion of certain
objectives such as signing in everyday or knocking out a specified number of opponents which is
one way keeping the user in touch with the game on daily basis.

Earning a specified amount of battle points makes the user eligible to purchase crates which gift
the user attractive items like coupons or clothing which gives accessibility to premium
material.The user can also use the money to buy in-game cash for attaining exclusive material.
Once you get the hang of the game you can then choose from the various types of matches and
begin looking for your victories.To keep the game play exciting, PUBG Mobile offers a unique
way of controlling the game viz. called the 'blue zone'.It is blue coloured virtual circle around an
area on the map and is there to focuson all the players in a compact diameter.The zone's diameter
decreases after a certain minutes, with the zone's centre dropping anywhere on the map. If a
player is captured in the blue zone, then his/her life will start deteriorating.This blue zone makes
the players plan techniques before arriving on the map so as to stay in the playing area and
destroy as many opponents as possible.

THE TYPE OF GAME MODES AND PLAYING MODES

Classic Game Mode

• This game mode is the most popular one where in 100 players compete on a single map
(island).

• These matches before starting provide the players a 1 minute window to try out their
moves and get to know the map.

• In this 1 minute window the players would get to see new players getting added to the
game until the net number of players reaches to 100.

• The players can play this game mode via 3 playing modes viz. solo mode(individual
player plays the game), duo mode(two players play in a team when one user invites
another user via their user id name in the game) and squad mode(where in a team of 4
players play by inviting each other via their user ids). 

!

Arcade Game Mode

• This mode contains 4 different type of matches- War mode, Mini-Zone match, Quick
match and Sniper training .These matches even offer the 3 playing modes viz. solo
mode , duo mode and squad mode.

• War mode:Players get to parachute with weaponry and can respawn constantly
throughout the match until they reach specified points.

• Mini Zone:This match includes 100 players with a small blue zone to compete in a fierce
battle.

• Quick match: This match continues exactly for 8 minutes and players get to combat it out
with a different class of weaponry in a brief time.

• Sniper training: This mode lets players improvise their sniping skills with various rifles. 

 Zombie Game Mode

• This limited edition game mode is a result of collaboration with Resident Evil 2, a
survival horror game. This involves 60 users landing on to Erangel which is now
dominated by zombies of Resident Evil 2.

• The mission of this game mode is to stay alive by being in the safe zone and killing the
competitors for two complete nights after which as it is when the zombies start attacking
the user.

• When a user comes in close proximity of about 40 metres with the zombies, then there is
the probability for the zombies to attack the user.

• This mode provides ammunitions like Flamethrower , M134 Minigun, and combat knives
which makes the user have a good experience of zombie killing. 

 DOMINANCE OF PUBG MOBILE IN INDIA

STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTED BY THE TEAM OF PUBG MOBILE

A)Testing of PUBG Mobile in China &Canada :

• Even though PUBG was a very well-known game on the PC, PUBG Corp. and Tencent
Games released the mobile edition exclusively in China and then soft launched the game
in Canada.

• On 9th February, two editions of PUBG Mobile were released in China. First edition
being ‘PUBG: Exhilarating Battlefield’ created by Lightspeed and Quantum Studios
which are the entities of Tencent Games, this edition was clearly the smartphone
adaptation of the PC edition and thus provided much similar experience to the Chinese
users. The second edition was‘PUBG: Army Attack’ which was created by Timi Studio
another entity of Tencent Games, this edition's unique selling point was the naval battles
which was not present in the PC edition which was more arcade themed. However this
 edition of the game was not considered to be released in the global market and so
‘PUBG: Exhilarating Battlefield’ simply renamed as ‘PUBG Mobile’ was considered to
be released.

• In Canada , on 15th March , 2018 PUBG Mobile was released in the Android platform

which was followed by the IOS release on 16th March , 2018. This was the first English

edition to be soft launched with the intention to get an idea about the user's first
impressions of the English mobile edition and to trace any errors before releasing it in the
global market of mobile gaming. 


• On 20th March, 2018 PUBG Mobile was released in India. Indeed PUBG Corporation

and Tencent Games made sure that when PUBG Mobile is released in the Indian Mobile
Gaming Market the game won’t be having any drawback which could disturb the smooth
growth of the game in India. 


B)Releasing the game prior to close competitor ‘Fortnite Battle Royale’ in India:

• The Battle Royale genre was pretty new to the Indian mobile users when 2018
started ,PUBG Corporation and Tencent Games exploited this opportunity by releasing
PUBG Mobile before it's bitter rivals 'Fortnite Battle Royale' in the Indian Mobile
Gaming Market and became the first battle royale genre's mobile game in India. 


• Fortnite Battle Royale's mobile edition for android and IOS platforms was released on

9thAugust , 2018 and can currently be downloaded only from Epic Games official

website which is the creator of this game and not from the two major platforms in India
viz. apps store and play store which has made it inconvenient for the Indian users where
 as PUBG Mobile is made available on both the major platforms in India. 


C)RegularGame Updates:

• PUBG Corp. and Tencent Games have followed the policy of bringing in new updates in
the game which includes new varieties in the accessories and clothing for the players,
new maps (islands) , climatic conditions and new ammunitions. It even follows quarterly
season system where in after every quarter the game gets updated with a new season.
These updates eventually aim at successfuluser retention by making sure that the users
who were acquired in the past do not express boredom with respect to the game. These
updates are as follows: 


• On 9th May,2018 Tencent Games released ‘Gaming Buddy’(an emulator) which is

facilitates PUBG Mobile users to play the game on PC via emulation and in such a case
the users will compete with those users who are also playing the game on PC via
emulation only.

• On 15th May,2018 PUBG Mobile was updated by the Miramar Map, a desert themed

map which was followed by the Sanhok Map update on 12th September,2018.These

updates were added after releasing them in PlayStation 4,Xbox One and PC gaming
media and thus made sure there is equality in the gaming experience’s content across all
the media of PUBG.

• On 19th June, 2018: Tencent games started offering ‘Royale Pass’ which involved the
users to complete assigned missions on daily and weekly basis and on completion the
users would be rewarded with crates. If the users could not complete the assigned
missions within the given time period provided they could even buy the same rewarded
crates by purchasing them.
 • On 20thDecember the Vikendi Map update was released and it was released for PUBG

Mobile prior to it’s release on other medias like Xbox One and PlayStation 4. This was

followed by the release of Zombie-Mode on 19th February, a new event mode in the

game which involves the users to fight against the characters belonging to ‘Resident Evil
2’ which is a horror game created by Capcom . 


D)Very minimum phone requirements to install the game: 


• The game is first of all free to download in both the platforms viz. Google’s playstore and
Apple’s apps store which makes it easily accessible.

• The minimum smartphone requirements to install the game in the case of an android
phone is software version of 5.1.1 , 2GB of RAM and dual core processor which is easily
available among the economical priced smartphones in India which leads to great user
acquisition.

• In the case of the elite iPhone users the game has minimum requirements of IOS 9. This
diminishes the probability of preventing any potential user to play the game on the basis
of lack of smartphone requirements in India.

• However if you want the most realistic gaming experience which the game is offering
you will require a smartphone with a minimum of 4GB of RAM and have at least 4GB of
RAM along with full high definition display. In the case of iPhone users , iPhone 7
onwards all the iPhones provided the most realistic gaming experience. 

 FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO PUBG MOBILE’S DOMINANCE

A)Easy accessibility to 3G and 4G Data:

• Though PUBG Mobile has very minimum smartphone requirements to be installed in an

user’s smartphone, the game requires constant and high speed internet connection. 


• This need isdirectly being catered by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. which has captured the
mobile data market in India by first offering free and high speed internet connectivity for
1 year and now providing very economical pricing for high and consistent internet
connectivity for the citizens of India. 


• Due to Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd other service providers like Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel
have also reduced their pricing for 3G and 4G Data so the affordable pricing for 3G and
4G Data has made high and consistent internet connectivity easily accessible to the India
users and has directly favoured PUBG Mobile’s user acquisition in India. 


B) Indian YouTubers Live Streaming : 


• Indian YouTube channels namely “Carry is live, Prash Gaming , UIC Gaming ,
Gareebooo , Roasting Guru , Raw Knee Games” which have subscribers in lakhs have
been live streaming their PUBG Mobile playing on their channels as a content for their
subscribers and by praising the experiences when playing the game it has influenced their
subscribers to try out the game.

• ‘Ashish Chanchlani Vines’ a very popular YouTube channel in India has even made a
video recreating the ‘Erangel map’ and entertaining the subscribers, these activities by the
 Indian YouTube Channels has directly increased the levels of awareness of PUBG Mobile
in India.

C)High percentage of Smartphone Users:

• According to the reports by ‘Statcounter’ from the period of January 2018- January 2019
the percentage of mobile users in India is about 76.07% , percentage of Desktop users in
India is about 23.54 % and percentage of Tablet users in India is about 0.39 %.

• According to the reports by ‘Economic Times’ the current mobile games playing
population in India has crossed over 200 million and is forecasted to be at least 450
million by 2021.This clearly tells us that when PUBG Mobile was released in India , the
game’s success was backed by a very high percentage of smartphone users and mobile
game playing population of India. 


D)Selling of PUBG items by E-Commerce Businesses:

• Industry leaders Amazon , Flipkart and other e-commerce businesses have monetized the
passion which Indian Users are having for the game by selling caps , t-shirts , keychains ,
phone covers , backpacks and helmets.

• There are t-shirts saying ‘chicken dinner’ and other such merchandise which have
directly contributed to the popularity and awareness of PUBG Mobile in India. 

RELEASE :

Windows
Bluehole used closed alpha and beta periods with about 80,000 players to gauge initial reaction
to the gameplay and adjust balance prior to a wider release. Just prior to the early access phase
on Steam, Bluehole opened a few servers and invited some popular live streamers of similar
games to try it out as to start gaining interest.[45] Early access for the Windows version launched
on March 23, 2017. This period was planned to last approximately six months, originally aiming
for a September 2017 release. In July 2017, Greene announced that they would need to extend
the early access period by a few months, continuing to release updates on a regular basis, with
plans to still release by the end of 2017, as committing to this original period "could hinder us
from delivering a fully featured game and/or lead to disappointment within the community if the
launch deadline is not met". Initially, Bluehole had expected that they would just gain enough
players through early access to smooth out the gameplay, and only when the game was
completed, they would have started more marketing for the title. The sudden interest in the game
from early access exceeded their expectations, and put emphasis on the stability of the game and
its underlying networking alongside gameplay improvements.[44] Through August 2017, these
updates generally included a major weekly patch alongside major monthly updates that provided
key performance improvements. However, from August onward Bluehole backed off the rate of
such patches, as the high frequency has led to some quality control issues, and the developers
rather make sure each patch content is well-vetted by the community before providing new
updates; this did not change their plans for a 2017 release, where it fully released out of early
access on December 20.

In part of the game's success in early access, Tencent Games, the largest publisher of video
games in China, approached Bluehole that same month with an offer to publish Battlegrounds in
China and purchase equity in the company. However, the China Audio-Video and Digital
Publishing Association issued a statement in October 2017 that discouraged battle royale-style
games, stating that they are too violent and deviate from Chinese values of socialism, deeming it
harmful to young consumers. The following month however, PUBG had reached a formal
agreement with the Chinese government to allow the release of the game in the country, with
Tencent as the publishing partner. However, some changes were made to make sure it aligned
with socialist values and traditional Chinese morals. In South Korea, the game is marketed and
distributed by Kakao Games.

Despite the lack of a Chinese publisher prior to the Tencent deal, players in China had found
ways to acquire and play the game through Steam via proxies and other networking tricks. To
address it, PUBG Corporation planned to add maximum client ping limits for servers which can
reduce the issues with latency problems and prevent some of the cheating that has occurred. This
would not prevent cross-region matchmaking but may make it difficult for some players to play
outside their region if they have a poor Internet infrastructure. Tencent has also helped by
identifying and reporting around 30 software programs to Chinese police that can be used to
cheat in Battlegrounds, leading to over a hundred arrests by the beginning of 2018. Separately,
this technical issue, in addition to the larger number of Chinese players, has created complaints
in the player community. Some Western players fear that many Chinese players are able to cheat
in the game by exploiting some of the network latency issues, something that PUBG Corporation
continued to address as the game shifted out of early access. However, a small number of players
called for server segregation by region, and had used racial insults at Chinese players they
encounter in game. Greene was disappointed with this "xenophobic attitude", calling it
"disgraceful", and asked the player community to respect the Chinese players more as their
numbers were a key part of the game's success.[58] Greene also identified that players can easily
get around such region locks using virtual private networks, making this approach ineffective.
[61] PUBG Corporation eventually added region-based matchmaking by October 2018, though
players still reported issues with connectivity and slow matchmaking.

Xbox One
Greene was part of Microsoft's press conference during E3 2017 to announce
that Battlegrounds would be coming to Xbox One as a timed console exclusive sometime by the
end of 2017, using the Xbox Game Preview early access approach to test it.
Initially, Greene said that Microsoft was not directly involved in the porting but only providing
assistance to make sure the port is good, and that most of the porting responsibilities are being
done by Anticto, a Spanish developer. However, at Gamescom that year, Bluehole affirmed
that Microsoft Studios would be publishing the Xbox One version of the title, helping to make a
planned 2017 release for this version.[65] Greene said that Microsoft's support has helped in
several ways, not only for the Xbox One version but improving the performance and security of
the Windows version. Further, by being part of the group of studios under the Microsoft banner,
they have been able to talk and incorporate technology from other developers, such as improved
water rendering techniques they obtained from Rare that they had developed for Sea of
Thieves. Microsoft considered Battlegrounds to be an important project to demonstrate their
company's ability to be more than just a publisher, according to Microsoft's Nico Bihary who
lead the project. Bihary said they have given Battlegrounds a "white glove" treatment, and for
the Xbox One port have provided services from their advanced technology group and time and
support from The Coalition, another of Microsoft Studios' subsidiaries.[67] Kim also stated that
the team was interested in cross-platform play between the Windows and console versions, but
did not anticipate this as a release feature, as they need to determine how to mitigate the
advantage keyboard and mouse-using players would have over those using controllers.

Titled "Game Preview Edition", the early access version for the Xbox One was released on
December 12, 2017 in both digital and physical formats. To promote it, Microsoft performed
real-life supply crate drops in Australia in the week prior, with the crates containing Xbox
hardware, Battlegrounds merchandise, and other goods, using passcodes published alongside the
drop locations on social media. The Xbox version also includes Xbox-specific in-game cosmetic
items, some which could be purchased directly rather than through in-game crates. The official
release out of the Game Preview program occurred on September 4, 2018.

Mobile versions
Following the Chinese publication deal for the Windows version, Tencent Games and PUBG
Corporation additionally announced that they were planning on releasing two mobile versions
based on the game in the country. The first, PUBG: Exhilarating Battlefield, is an abridged
version of the original game, and was developed by Lightspeed & Quantum Studio, an internal
division of Tencent Games. The second, PUBG: Army Attack, includes more arcade-style
elements, including action taking place on warships, and was developed by Tencent's Timi
Studio.[76] Both versions are free-to-play, and were released for Android and iOS devices on
February 9, 2018. The games had a combined total of 75 million pre-registrations, and ranked
first and second on the Chinese iOS download charts at launch. Following a soft launch in
Canada, an English version of Exhilarating Battlefield, localized simply as PUBG Mobile, was
released worldwide on March 19, 2018.

In China, PUBG Mobile had been awaiting approval by the government for an authorized
released, during which the game could only be offered as a public test. However, Tencent's
planned release was suspended due to the government approval freeze across most of 2018. By
May 2019, Tencent announced it would no longer seek to publish PUBG Mobile in China, but
instead would ship a similar battle royale title, Game for Peace that readily meets China's
content restrictions, such as eliminating blood and gore.

PlayStation 4
With the announcement of the Xbox release, PUBG Corporation stated that there were plans to
port to additional platforms, such as the PlayStation 4. In an interview shortly after Gamescom,
Greene said that their deal with Microsoft did not exclude a PlayStation 4 port, but that their
focus at the time was only on the Windows and Xbox One version, given the small size of their
team. When asked about it in January 2018, Kim stated that the team released the game first on
the Steam and Xbox Game Preview early access programs as they both easily allowed in-
development games to be released and updated over time, which contrasted with Sony's lack of
their own early access program, as well as their strict quality control for even completed
games. The PlayStation port was officially announced in November, and was released on
December 7, 2018. PUBG Corporation studio head Brian Corrigan said that while they had had a
small team working on the PlayStation 4 port for some time, it was only until the Xbox One port
was mostly completed that they began fully working on the PlayStation port. The PlayStation 4
version of the game includes platform-exclusive customization items, specifically the outfit
of Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series, and Ellie's backpack from The Last of Us.[88] A short
live-action film to promote the PlayStation 4 release was directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and
starred Jason Mitchell.

Cross-platform play support between the Xbox and PlayStation versions of Battlegrounds was
added in October 2019 following a testing period during the prior month.

PUBG Lite
PUBG Lite is a free version of Battlegrounds that is meant to be better playable on low-end
computers by having significant reductions in graphic details and other features, but is otherwise
feature complete with the full game. The version is meant to be played in regions where the
game's minimum specifications may be difficult for average players to achieve, with a beta
launch first releasing in Thailand in January 2019, and in Europe that October.
 PUBG MOBILE INDIA SERIES 2019

• PUBG Corporation and Tencent Games had organized this series with a prize pool of
Rupees 1 Crore. This was the second tournament organized by Tencent Games and PUBG
Corporation , the first being ‘PUBG Mobile Campus Championship’ which had a prize
pool of Rupees 50 Lakhs and was organized in the year 2018 exclusively for the college
and university going audiences. PUBG Mobile India Series was organized for the entire
PUBG Mobile playing audience of India.

• The registrations for the participants started from 10th January and ended on 23rd

January. Then came the in-game qualifiers on 21st January, which ended on 28th

Januaryand which included the participants to compete in 15 classic game mode matches
with their squads in the Erangel Map. Each squad’s best 10 matches were considered for
qualifying into the online play-offs.

• The online play-offs started on 9th February and ended on 24th February. The first stage

of online play-offs included the2000 best squads to be divided into 100 groups of 20
squads in each group, the matches were of knockout format and best 4 squads from each
group advanced to the second stage of the online play- offs where in the 400 squads from
the first stage will be divided into 20 groups with 20 squads in each group, the matches
were of knockout format and the best four squads from each group advanced to the third
stage of the online play-offs. In the third stage the 80 squads were divided into four
groups of 20 squads each and competed in a knockout format where in the best five
squads from each group advanced to the finals of the series.

• On 10th March in GMC Balayogi Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad, the best 20 squads then

played a series of 5 matches and based on the overall rankings and kills of the squads
“Team Soul-Soul Viper , Soul Mortal , Soul Owasis, and Soul Ronak” won the
tournament and were awarded cash prize of Rupees 30 Lakhs. The runners up were Team
 God’s reign and Team Funky Monkey reached the third place winning Rupees 10 Lakhs
and 5 Lakhs respectively. 


Design

Battlegrounds represents the standalone version of what Greene believes is the "final version" of
the battle royale concept, incorporating the elements he had designed in previous
iterations. Faster development was possible with the game engine Unreal Engine 4, compared
with ARMA and H1Z1, which were built with proprietary game engines. Greene acknowledged
that implementing the size of the maps in Battlegrounds has been one of the challenges with
working with Unreal, which was not designed with such maps in mind. The game was designed
as a mix between the realistic simulation of ARMA 3 and the arcade-like action focus and player
accessibility of H1Z1. To prevent in-game cheating, the game uses the "BattlEye" anti-cheating
software, which had permanently banned over 13 million players by October 2018. BattlEye
indicated that 99% of all cheating software for the game was developed in China.

Based on Greene's experience with the genre, an island with many terrain features was picked as
the first map, known as "Erangel". The map design scope was to offer players many possible
options for strategic and unique gameplay.[4] Some buildings and structures were designed to
depict the style of the brutalist architecture of the Soviet Union during the 1950s. The developer
team playtested architecture features and random item placement systems, looking at both how
close-quarters encounters went, and for open terrain areas.[4] The goal was to optimize the right
distribution and placement of weapons and gear across the map, to encourage players to make
strategic decisions about how to proceed in the game without overly penalizing players who may
not find weapons within the first few minutes of a round. During early access, additional maps
were planned, such as one set on a fictional island in the Adriatic Sea that included snow-
covered Yugoslavian territories.[33][22] Greene stated that he thought the Erangel map felt
disjointed despite meeting their goals for gameplay, and sought to create more unified ideas with
future maps.
The freefall from an airplane at the start of each match was a new feature for the genre, to
encourage strategy between staying with the pack of players or seeking out one's own route for a
better chance at finding good loot. With the added parachute drop, Greene considered
that Battlegrounds had three distinct subgames: the airdrop during which one must quickly figure
out the best time to jump and where to land in relationship to the other players, the loot game of
knowing where and how to gather the best possible equipment, and the combat game with other
players. Winners of a match are greeted with the phrase "winner winner chicken dinner", an
idiom that Greene had used in his prior battle royale games and kept in Battlegrounds, which
itself had origins as early as the Great Depression era.

Greene also introduced microtransactions that allow players to use real-world funds to purchase
loot crates that provide randomly-selected cosmetic items, also known as "skins", which they can
trade with other players; while Greene recognizes the issue with skin gambling, he believes that
Valve has put safeguards in place to support a "skin economy" that will provide further revenue
for them without concerns over gambling. However, by November 2017, gray market skin
gambling sites began to appear that used Battlegrounds cosmetics as virtual currency. Following
controversy over the use of loot boxes to offer "pay-to-win" items in other games in November
2017, the PUBG Corporation affirmed that while they would continue to add new cosmetic items
rewarded by in-game crate purchases, they would never add anything that affects or alters
gameplay.In May 2018, PUBG Corporation disabled the ability to trade skins on the Steam
Marketplace as they found that players were still abusing the system by selling them for
monetary value through unofficial third-party platforms. While still in early access, Bluehole
offered an early preview of the system by offering time-limited crates that could be purchased
during the first Battlegrounds Invitations tournament during Gamescom in August 2017, with the
sales from these contributing to the prize pool. Among loot from these crates were special outfits
inspired by the original Battle Royale film. Greene anticipates adding a campaign mode with co-
operative player support, though there would be "no serious lore" crafted for the narrative,
comparing this to similar modes in .
The game also features custom gamemodes and modding support. He considered modding
support an essential part of the full release as, just as he had his start with mods, he wants to
enable others to create variations on his game so that he could "find the next
PlayerUnknown". This was aided by a quiet release of custom server support to a number of
influential streamers which subsequently made it into public release. In one case, "Zombie
Mode", all but four players pretend to be zombies, who may sometimes distinguish themselves
by removing all clothing and are limited only to collecting melee weapons and consumable
items, and must rush to attack the other four players, who are able to collect all gear and attempt
to outrun and defeat the zombies. Inspired by this mode, Greene announced plans to introduce an
official zombie-based gameplay mode based on this into Battlegrounds. Whereas most of the rest
of the team continued to develop the core gameplay and maps, Greene is taking on the zombie
mode as a near solo project, only using the assistance of the lead animator to help with the
zombie animations. Greene sees Battlegrounds as a platform, and would like to see more custom
game types and mods developed by players for it. Greene identified that some mods that he also
previously worked on from ARMA 3 may become part of the Battlegrounds platform. Greene
also wants to incorporate the game with streaming services like Twitch.tv that would enable
replays or other features amenable to treating Battlegrounds as an esport, calling this an "ultimate
end goal" for his development, but he wanted to let the nature of how it would play out naturally
with players.
 ESPORTS

To celebrate the game surpassing two million copies sold, Bluehole announced a 2017 Charity
Invitational event, inviting 128 players to compete over their official Twitch.tv channel to raise
money for the Gamers Outreach Foundation, with Bluehole matching all donations up
to US$100,000. The competition ran in early May 2017, and raised at least US$120,000 from
viewers along with Bluehole's US$100,000 match, and served as a prototype for
future esports events for the game. During the August 2017 Gamescom event, Bluehole
and ESL organized the first Battlegrounds invitational tournament, with a $350,000 prize pool.
Separate events were held for solo players, two-player teams, two-player teams fixed to first-
person perspective, and four-player squads. Each event featured three matches, with the player or
team scoring the highest across all three named winners.

Greene said that while he had envisioned the battle royale format to be a spectator sport since
his ARMA II mod, their approach to making Battlegrounds an esport would be a matter of taking
"baby steps". Greene said that they would not actively pursue esports until after the game was
fully released and that all major bugs were eliminated. The Gamescom 2017 event demonstrated
the issues surrounding the logistics of running a large Battlegrounds tournament with a large
number of players involved, and they had worked alongside ESL to explore how to do this
effectively in the future. Further, Greene stated there was also the need to establish a format for
presenting a Battlegrounds match to make it interesting to spectators, which he thought would
take some time to develop given the nature of the emergent gameplay, comparing it to
established first-person shooters and multiplayer online battle arena esport games. A 20-team,
80-player tournament produced by Intel took place in Oakland in November 2017, with a prize
pool of US$200,000.
Sales and downloads

Battlegrounds made US$11 million in the first three days of its Windows early access release in
March 2017. By the second week of April, the game had sold over one million copies, with a
peak player count of 89,000, SuperData Research estimated that the game's April sales
exceeded US$34 million, putting it as one of the top 10 highest grossing revenue games for the
month and exceeding revenue from Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. By May
2017, the game had sold over two million copies, with total gross revenues estimated
at US$60 million. Within three months of its early access release, it had surpassed over five
million copies sold, and Bluehole announced it had exceeded US$100 million in sale
revenue. Battlegrounds reached this four million mark faster than Minecraft, which took over a
year to reach similar sales figures while it was in its paid-beta development period.

By September 2017, Bluehole's value, as tracked by a firm that tracks private Korean
corporations, increased five-fold from June of that year to a value of US$4.6 billion, primarily
due to Battlegrounds. By December 2017, PUBG Corporation reported that there were more than
30 million players worldwide between the Windows and Xbox versions. The research film
SuperData estimated that Battlegrounds drew in more than US$712 million in revenue within
2017. By February 2018, the game had sold over thirty million on Steam according
to SteamSpy. The following month, Gabe Newell stated that the game was the third highest-
grossing game of all time on the platform.

Within three days of going live on the Xbox Live Preview Program in mid-December 2017,
Microsoft announced that Battlegrounds had sold more than a million copies on the platform.
Alongside this, Microsoft announced that Battlegrounds would be offered as a free add-on for
those buying the Xbox One X console through the end of 2017. A month after release, the Xbox
version had sold more than four million copies and was the fourth bestselling game in the United
States, according to The NPD Group. By March 2018, the game had sold forty million copies
across all platforms, which had risen to over fifty million by June, averaging over 87 million
players daily with over 400 million players in total. The mobile version in particular had over
100 million downloads by August 2018, and exceeded 225 million by October 2018, a figure
higher than the combined player base for Fortnite at nearly the same point in time. The bulk of
these players are in Asian countries such as China and India, where PUBG Mobile was released
before Fortnite and can run on lower-powered mobile hardware. China has the game's largest
player base, and PUBG is the most popular online game in India, as of 2018.

PUBG was the top-selling premium game of 2017, having sold 30 million units worldwide and
grossed about $900 million. By June 2018, it had sold more than 50 million units
worldwide. PUBG was again the top-selling premium game of 2018, increasing its annual sales
revenue to $1.028 billion. In addition, the free-to-play PUBG Mobile has grossed a
further $630.4 million as of March 2019.

PUBG Mobile was the second most-downloaded mobile game of 2018, with nearly 300 million
downloads worldwide. The game's largest market was China, which accounted for 29% of the
game's downloads, followed by India and the United States each with about 10% (30 million) of
its downloads. It was the most-installed battle royale game of 2018, with about 200 million more
installs than Fortnite, which received 82 million installs on mobile devices.

In Japan, PUBG was the most popular PC game during 2017. PUBG Mobile grossed ¥3.58
billion ($32.42 million) in Japan during 2018.[176] In January 2019, the PlayStation 4 version
of Battlegrounds sold 7,447 copies within its first week in Japan, which placed it at number
fourteen on the all format sales chart.
 CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN GAMING SPACE

Anybody over the age of thirty will remember the slow start to gaming in general, and
particularly in India. But they will also note the stupendous transformation that has taken place
within their own lifetime. The definition of gaming has changed from what it used to be just 10
years back and is changing so fast that it is difficult to capture its advancement even today.
Gaming, which was at one time mostly about simple video applications has since changed to
complex gaming consoles and now with virtual reality and augmented reality gaining
prominence, gaming is almost unrecognizable from the days it began. In India also, even though
it took longer for the trend to catch on, the speed at which technology is gaining ground today
clearly indicates that the Indian gaming industry is at the point of a major transformation.
With 1.3 billion people and two-thirds of them under the age of 35 - the world’s largest youth
population, India is poised to become one of the world’s leading markets for gaming. This surge
is new. India is fast becoming a key player in the gaming industry primarily because we have
demonstrated the technical and creative skill sets and a professional aptitude to meet
international game development needs, at competitive costs. Ease of communication due to
facility with English language also puts us in pole position among global competition. It is no
surprise therefore to see that the youth in India is increasingly seeing Game Development as a
viable and serious career with ample room for growth.

The Indian Gaming industry offers a range of career opportunities in varied functional areas
including Game Animation, Game Art creation in 3D and 2D, Game Design, Game Testing,
Game Programming, Project Management, along with general management positions. Although,
the industry offers a plethora of careers, it is an individual’s choice as to which area they would
like to develop their expertise in. For instance, Game Art creation is today a much-advanced field
of art that requires a dedicated workflow. Also, it is important to understand that developing a
game requires not just the technical expertise but also a very creative mind.
Get the right training and skillset

A developer or an artist needs to have a fair understanding of the usage of toolsets like Max or
Maya, etc. The software is a little hard to get by initially, but practice makes it easy. It is also
important to note that each area requires different software tools, and one needs to equip him or
herself accordingly. For example, an animator would need to be comfortable with the animation
tool-set in Maya or Max whereas a 3D artist would need to have a fair understanding of tools for
creating polygonal models in software like Maya and textures in Photoshop.
For Game Design, one could consider undertaking a course at specialized institutes though most
game designers are mostly self-taught. Those wanting to learn Game Programming would be
well advised to enrol in a good Computer Science program, while learning Game Programming
on their own, on the side. Those wanting to make a career in Game Art should consider enrolling
for a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program at a good university, followed by a training program
at a specialized training institute. Advent of new technologies in the field of gaming continues to
throw up new career opportunities as a shift from one technology to another. Since the transition
takes time, new industry professionals are needed to fill up the difference in development models
and to cope with new upcoming technology like virtual reality.

Demand for high quality professionals

The exponential growth of the industry has created a voluminous market for professionals,
experts and technicians in the sector. This has created a new set of opportunities for young
aspirants who want to be part of this industry. There is a pressing need for professionals at
different levels in the sector over the next five years to cope with the demand from leading
countries in games development space like the US and Japan, apart from increasing demand
domestically.
The demand for high quality professionals has raised the bar for remuneration in the gaming
industry. The gaming industry today pays at par or better than peer professions, averaging Rs
30,000 to Rs 40,000 per month after just a few months of starting out. Depending on personal
attributes such as skill sets, creative talent or other factors, post-employment growth
opportunities in the gaming industry are almost limitless.
India has the potential to be the next big hub for game process outsourcing globally and its youth
has a phenomenal opportunity to be part of this new world of opportunity.