When teasing its latest monthly update last week, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds revealed a crossover between its free-roaming open world shooter, and the similarly themed 2001 action movie Battle Royale was on the cards. The former's creator Brendan Greene has always been open about his love for the latter, however it seems he and his Bluehole team are open to further tie-ins down the line.
"I always wanted to put in something into the game that was a tribute to the movie," Greene tells us. "I love that movie and it's basically where I got started. We have the pan in there because there's a pan in the movie. It's been about putting little tributes to the things that have inspired me. Even in the game, the island's name is named after my daughter, and we have a bit of graffiti—there's a guy called DevilWalker who got me my first DayZ mod server, his name is in graffiti in the game. I like having the ability to do that, adding in the things that have inspired me into the game to make it a little bit more real to me."
It's easy to miss the graffiti that's dotted around PUBG's dilapidated buildings when you're being gunned down, chopped down, or, you know, chased with a frying pan. But Greene explains there's more to the artwork than just pretty words and pictures—that there are even lines from Battle Royale scrawled in Japanese that the game's concept artist snuck into the game unbeknownst to Greene.
I suggest to Greene that while a Battle Royale tie-in sounds exciting, there are other movies that explore similar themes such as, say, The Hunger Games. I ask if further crossovers are something he and his team might consider down the line.
"Oh sure, we're open to anything," says Greene. "Going forward we have a great platform to add some stuff into, to do some themed stuff, I think everything is possible. We're not tying ourselves to a particular theme, any tie in that you'd imagine would probably be possible."
