PUBG is now a lot greater than the battle royale mode it as soon as pioneered. As effectively as the traditional 100-player battlegrounds, the Krafton-owned megahit has aspirations within the extraction shooter area with Black Funds, as effectively as the extra console-friendly Venture Valor, each in growth. However quickly, boot up Battlegrounds itself, and also you’ll discover the developer’s newest addition to that assortment, the sci-fi co-op PvE roguelike Xeno Level. It’s maybe essentially the most excessive instance of the now nine-year-old sport transitioning right into a platform – one clearly designed to rival the success of its battle royale competitor from the opposite facet of the world, Fortnite. Epic’s globe-conquering shooter has lengthy built-in completely different gameplay experiences into its last-player-standing cloth, together with a collaboration with the playful Lego, the musical Pageant, and hundreds of player-created modes. And now, PUBG Studios is aiming to construct the foundations of the same ecosystem, kicking issues off with Xeno Level, which I lately performed when visiting the developer in Seoul.
From spending just a few days in South Korea across the ninth anniversary of PUBG, it’s clear simply how huge a deal it’s there. Whereas Fortnite might dominate the cultural mindshare in Europe and the US, Battlegrounds nonetheless stays the king on this a part of Asia. A well-attended occasion at Korea College’s Hwajeong Gymnasium performed host to developer panels, extravagant magic exhibits, and Okay-Pop performances. Within the stylish Seongsu district of the capital sits a devoted cultural area designed for gamers to take a slice of the battle royale into the true world. A themed cafe and e-sports like area to play the sport in sit behind a skate park suffering from PUBG iconography, such as weapons from the sport’s collab with Okay-Pop woman group Aespa, taking issues to the following stage. It’s clear from speaking to the workforce at PUBG Studios that the shooter is way more than a sport right here, however part of the tradition. You’d wrestle to discover one single sport celebrated to such a level in some other nation.
It’s one thing that they’d love to replicate on the Western facet of the globe. Sure, PUBG Battlegrounds isn’t any nice underdog — it nonetheless sat contained in the 12 most performed video games on Steam in 2025 — however the studio desires extra. And to accomplish that, it has to change considerably. There’s no denying that whereas Fortnite has advanced each visually and mechanically over the previous decade or so, Battlegrounds has remained largely unchanged, hesitating to embrace event-driven seasons and pop-culture collaborations to fairly the identical extent. To some, it is nonetheless the purest battle royale, and one which comes with a pleasant layer of jank to it, even when its present incarnation is refined in contrast to its 2017 beginnings. However somewhat than stick to these core concepts, or even perhaps provide a “traditional” model of the sport as it did quickly a few years in the past, the studio goes in a special route.
From talking with the builders in Seoul, it is clear that the Fortnite mannequin is the place they see the way forward for PUBG, with extra experimental, timed modes being lined up. That’s not to say that refinements for Battlegrounds aren’t additionally on their method, with an overhaul of the way it performs on consoles promised, together with improved controller help and 120 fps, however there are a lot greater, wider-scope issues to come. Throughout a presentation given by Taeseok Jang, Head of the PUBG IP Franchise Group, he admits that “PUBG is now not seen [internally] as a single sport” and as a substitute as a “long-term franchise with the objective of turning into a world cultural icon.” Step one in direction of doing this? “Together with high-quality modes developed in collaboration with exterior studios, as effectively as ongoing experimentation with user-generated content material.”
One among these collabs is the upcoming Payday mode, which, fairly actually, seems to be inserting Starbreeze’s heist-shooter motion into PUBG with help from the Swedish studio. It’s set to arrive in Might, however earlier than that, on April 8, comes Xeno Level, a sci-fi roguelite made fully within PUBG Studios’ partitions. I acquired to check out this co-op PvE shooter mode when visiting, and, whereas it didn’t blow me away, it did present an perception into the place the way forward for the platform is headed.
A number of missions exist within Xeno Level, all of which largely contain gunning down waves of alien invaders as you progress from level to level via linear ranges, every of which is drawn from a warped model of Battlegrounds’ Miramar map. Earlier than heading out on every expedition, you’ll get to load up with acquainted PUBG weaponry and gadgets, such as AUGs and tablets, after which equip your self with damaging final skills that function on a cooldown. I notably loved sending a swarm of detonating bugs in direction of enemies and watching them explode. You’ll get the possibility to unlock everlasting upgrades and stat boosts in your character after every run, too, giving a way of development via every of its ten or so ranges.
It all culminates in a phase-based boss combat through which you’ll be tasked with hammering bullets into glowing weak factors on an enormous alien being whereas dodging all method of red-tinged projectiles. That is the place the co-op nature of Xeno Level comes to the fore as you coordinate with teammates to use your final skills along side each other. For instance, summoning an enormous protecting protect that you just and your three teammates can shelter beneath when you frantically scramble to revive a downed good friend within it.
For this demonstration, we have been dropped in with high-level gear and took on the mode’s hardest boss almost immediately, so it was arduous to get an actual grasp of what the total expertise will in the end really feel like, however from my time with Xeno Level, it appears a wonderfully serviceable shooter mode that may act as a change of tempo from Battleground’s core tension-filled motion, even when I did discover its injury sponge threats slightly uninteresting in contrast to the thrill present in its last-player-standing staple.
It’s that unique battle royale drama that has saved followers coming again to PUBG for over 9 years now, although, so I do query whether or not this foray into experimenting with extra arcadey modes is the way in which ahead. The objective could also be to rebuild “connections in Western markets and youthful audiences”, as the director of PUBG: Battlegrounds, Taehyun Kim, states, however I’m undecided if a routine feeling sci-fi roguelite and the introduction of Payday — a collection whose third launch lately fell method in need of expectations — is the way in which to do this.
As a substitute, persevering with to refine the 1vs99 magic that it led the way in which with could possibly be the wiser play right here, and positively tweaking the console expertise with the aforementioned enhancements is an indication that this will probably be occurring alongside these extra experimental modes. However I am unable to assist however really feel that PUBG gamers come to the sport for its signature moments of rigidity, and extra ‘rough-and-ready’ feeling gunplay that it has supplied since 2017. A full, everlasting traditional mode could be the reply for many who yearn for these early days when an Irish modder took inspiration from a 2000 Japanese movie to pioneer a shooter style inside Day Z.
Doubling down on what made thousands and thousands of gamers fall in love with the unique battle royale and emphasising these essentially thrilling roots could be the smarter alternative, somewhat than chasing the platform that Fortnite has develop into.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Observe him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.