Launched on March 2017. $11 Million in 3 days. 1 Million Copies in a month.
2 Million Copies by May. 4 Million by June. And the end of August 2017 “The most played Game on Steam”.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) came in the market seemingly and conquered the Gaming Industry overnight. But the important question is, How?
People always wanted a battle-royale game but no one in the gaming industry saw this demand. Brendan “PlayerUnknown’s” Greene, an Irish Photographer and Web Designer, wanted to create a battle-royale game. He collaborated with Chang Han Kim of South Korea based gaming company Bluehole to pursue his dream. And the rest, as they say, is history.
I personally have never played PUBG, I have always seen my friends playing it very addictively, which inspires me to do this Case Study.
So now the important question again How did PUBG seized the battleground?
The success of PUBG is its Concept, No Doubt. But this massive expansion was the result of its brilliant Time Strategy.
Know Your Audience.
The creator of PUBG, Brendan Greene has already envisioned the audience for his game. While doing his research, Greene was enlightened with the audiences’ interest in the battle-royal genre. The Japanese movie and novel named Battle Royal and the Hollywood blockbuster The Hunger Games proved that the masses are excited in the scenarios of survival of the fittest. After the success of a hyper-realistic military shooting game Arma and its mod (which later became standalone) DayZ. Greene used Arma’s hyper-realistic combat mechanics to develop his own mod.
Later, after getting a good response from the gaming community, Greene announced his new project, not a mod, but a proper e-sport game. His announcement created a buzz among the community. People were impatient about this. Greene had gained the confidence of the people and he was ready to dominate the market.
The Timing Lesson.
The major credit for PUBG’s success goes to the concept of the game. But the most under-appreciated contribution to the success was made by its timing of the release. Well as you might have heard “Timing is Everything”. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds hits the market at the very peak of the time. E-sports trend has been flourishing since 2015. The flu of E-sport was viral. People love watching e-sport. Greene knew the rise of e-sports and launched an early access of the PUBG which was hit. Thousands of players and tens of thousands of viewers watching the early release being played. The Early release was complicated and messed up, but people loved it. PUBG hits the market with a well established built at the perfect time which eventually helped it to capitalise the market of people growing interested in the sport. It also helped it get way ahead of the competitors and create a large barrier. As of 2018, PUBG still continues to dominate the market.
Take Away.
Obviously, it is a good idea to get into something that is getting popular. But hitting the nail at the right time is as important as hitting the nail at the right spot.
