• News

PlayerUnknown wants to make open-world games, releases Prologue tech demo

The man behind PUBG plans to make an open-world game that utilizes machine learning to create a game on a scale that is "seldom attempted".

Sam Chandler

September 3, 2021 2:05 AM

3

Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene has been hard at work developing a new studio. After his time creating the hit battle royale, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, he has his eyes set on a new target: creating an open-world game that is bigger and more ambitious than anything that has come before. Players that want to see what he means by this are invited to download and try out the Prologue tech demo.

On September 3, 2021, Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene took to Twitter to inform his followers about the goals he and his team have been undertaking. “We want to create realistic sandbox worlds on a scale that’s seldom attempted,” Greene said. “Worlds hundreds of kilometers across, with thousands of players interacting, exploring, and creating.”

pic.twitter.com/dipZpUSeNY

— PLAYERUNKNOWN (@PLAYERUNKNOWN) September 3, 2021

However, one problem open-world games face, especially ones on the scale Greene describes, is filling it with content. He notes that realistic open-worlds take time to produce. To this end, the team at PlayerUnknown Productions has been developing a neural network that can learn and generate massive, realistic worlds.

An early version of this vision can be seen in the Prologue tech demo. In this demo, players must find their way across a run-time generated wilderness, where harsh weather is the constant foe. It sounds as if this demo is utilizing an early version of what the team ultimately wants to achieve with their neural network. Greene summarizes the demo simply: “It’s just a world, a spot on the map to reach, and the tools you need to get there.” Players are free to pay whatever they want for the tech demo.

We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on PlayerUnknown Productions as well as its ambitious neural network learning system the team hopes to employ to make their huge game.

Sam Chandler

Guides Editor

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as a Guides Editor. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler