PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has spent the past several weeks showcasing its incoming desert map, teasing new weapons and vehicles and, running test servers ahead of its forthcoming full release. The latter is priority, so suggests developer Bluehole, however there exists a "relatively strong demand" for more cosmetic items—similar to the Gamescom Invitational special item crate that launched in August.
In a developer Q&A at this year's G-Star Global Game Exhibition in Korea, PUBG Corp. CEO and lead game designer Changhan Kim acknowledged wider interest in cosmetics, however suggested loot crates will never be pay-to-win in nature.
"As you may already know, we will never add anything that affects the gameplay," says Kim. "However, there is a relatively strong demand for cosmetic items. Since the official launch is our top priority, we plan on adding new items after that."
Kim also addresses how he and his colleagues are tackling in-game cheating, and the prospect of a tutorial training mode.
Of the latter, Kim says: "Frankly, I think there lies PUBG’s charm. Our thought was, ‘There is no practice in life! It should be tough!’ since delivering the reality was important. However, many players are requesting a tutorial mode or a shooting range, and we believe this could be helpful for some players. So, we will start devising a plan to develop such a feature after the official release."
Elsewhere, Kim turns his attention to he and his team's process when selecting and designing weapons.
"We add new weapons to complement deficiencies in the given lineup of weapons, considering each weapon’s purpose and features. Of course, the weapon lineup reflects our individual preferences a lot as well," says Kim. "Whether popular or specific, there are people with diverse preferences here, so many interesting weapons are being considered. Some weapons are discarded at the selection process if they are too disruptive balance-wise according to concrete internal standards.
"We are aware that many Korean players really want K2 to be added as a new weapon. It is definitely on our lineup of weapons to be considered, but since it may overlap with other existing weapons in terms of its purpose and features, we are approaching this addition from a perspective of design diversification."
