I think it’s safe to say that all PUBG players were at least mildly excited when we learned that there was going to be a PUBG event mode coming akin to Fortnite‘s. After all, it was one of the things that Fortnite players could tout as their own to rub in the faces of those who preferred PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Then, what that first event would be was a bit underwhelming, albeit still semi-exciting (anything new is better than nothing new, right?). We learned that the first major event was going to be the new PUBG 8 Man Squad Event that many of you reading this likely tested out over the weekend.
Unfortunately, the event didn’t go as planned, and it served as more of an example of why PUBG is lagging behind its biggest competitor than a glimmer of hope for its current player base.
So, what went wrong? For starters, you would think with something called an 8 Man Squad Event would actually allow you to bring in a team of eight to play against other teams of eight. Unfortunately, for this event, players were actually unable to craft a full team of eight. Instead, you could only form your typical team of four, and then you had to be paired with four other random players via matchmaking (randos, if you will).
Now, for those who aren’t familiar with the PUBG crowd, it’s typically best to avoid interacting with other players with a microphone at all; it’s a safe universal rule to live by when playing. Need proof? Listen to the first 30 seconds of any match while you’re sitting in the plane with 99 other players. It’s bad, and in my experience, more players seem to engage in toxic behaviors than don’t.
Unfortunately, that meant that a lot of the holes filling up my 8 man squad were tough to play with, due to toxicity, general trolling, and simply too much mic chatter. To those who want to play PUBG to actually be competitive, you’ll know that excessive chatter about things unrelated to your game will quickly cause you death.
On top of that, it forced players to have to talk in-game as opposed to Discord or other chat programs, which meant enemy players could hear all of that chatter.
Yup, quick death.
So that is just problem one, and there’s even a bigger problem to deal with here: the fact that Xbox One players didn’t even get to play in the event at all, as it was for PC only.
Nothing will make you lose players faster than excluding and alienating half of them (in this case, Xbox One players). When you pair this with the state of the Xbox One version technically speaking in comparison to how much smoother the PC version runs, you have to start wondering just how much abuse and neglect PUBG Xbox One players will be able to take before jumping ship.
Sure, we probably should mention that PUBG Corp. mentioned that this first event was “just to get the ball rolling”, but shouldn’t it have, at least, included both platforms to test? Shouldn’t players have been to jump into the PUBG 8 Man Squad Event with a full team of eight?
It feels as though the developers have dropped the ball here, and I can see the ball dropping even further. Picture this: the next event mode is only for Xbox One players. Now, as a PC player, I’m feeling neglected.
It’s this sort of poor management decision and execution that are making it hard for PUBG to regain some of its popularity back from Fortnite, and that could spell trouble for the game’s current players.
Think we’re crazy? Did you mind having randos in your 8-man squad? Sound off in the comments below.