PUBG Corp. CEO Wants PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds to Be “Universal Media Franchise”

With 26 million units sold on PC this year, few games have seen a rise as meteoric as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and the phenomenon isn’t limiting itself to one field of media. Only weeks since the game’s launch out of Steam Early Access, PUBG Corp. CEO Chang Ham Kim is looking to expand the game’s presence even further—to that of a “universal media franchise.”

In an interview with Inven Global, Kim touted both the success of Battlegrounds and what is on the horizon for the game within videogame fields and beyond.

“I’d like PUBG to become a universal media franchise based on the game,” he said. :We want to take part in diverse industries including e-sports, movies, drama, cartoons, animation and more.” While Battlegrounds has yet to penetrate fields beyond videogames, the game did hold its first e-sports event at Gamescom in August 2017.

Other media power players are starting to see the overwhelming potential of Battleground, as well. According to Kim, “we received a couple of love calls from a number of developers in Hollywood and Netflix.”

For now though, Battlegrounds continues to focus on bringing the game to more players via console releases. The Xbox One Game Preview release of the game sold one million units in its first two days, and Kim knows that eventually the premier battle royale experience will arrive on PlayStation 4.

“Early Access on Steam and Game Preview on Xbox One are like pre-release, so they don’t have a restriction on quality. However, PS is very strict about this … we are still in the stage of learning the console development environment and console gamers’ taste,” he said, adding, “the final goal would be to launch the title on every platform.”

If Battlegrounds has the ability to overtake Dota2 in player count within five months of its release, there is no reason to underestimate just how far cult of personality can carry the franchise.