There was a fair amount of shock following Brendan Greene's departure from Krafton recently. The game developer formerly known as PlayerUnknown is the mastermind behind PUBG, which is arguably the most successful battle royale game of the last few decades and inspired a wave of similar titles. While this departure may have been unexpected for many, there's plenty of evidence that Greene is onto bigger and better things.
Brendan Greene had left the PUBG core team in 2019 with a clear desire to move away from battle royale-style games. Since PUBG pretty much nailed the battle royale game, it makes sense that Greene would want to creatively explore. Greene left South Korea after the split with Krafton and moved to Amsterdam, closer to his native home Ireland. In Amsterdam, Greene set up his own studio called PlayerUnknown Productions. As PlayerUnknown, Brendan Greene had an inspiring story, beginning with modding games to then creating an international sensation in PUBG. PlayerUnknown Productions will hopefully provide Greene with the space needed to create his next big hit.
No More Battle Royale
As mentioned, Brendan Greene has been moving away from creating battle royale games for a while. His early mods of DayZ were mainly battle royale focused, with battle royale referring to the 2000 Japanese film of the same name. However, Greene has been clear that his aim at PlayerUnknown Productions is not to create another battle royale game, but to create something more experimental.
Greene has stated that starting his own studio has been a dream of his for a while, so presumably, he's had some ideas for future games. Other details that have been revealed about PlayerUnknown Productions is that it is exploring software capable of making open-world games. An experimental and large-scale open-world game is a hefty undertaking for the new studio, which Krafton retains a small stake in. If Greene's previous success is anything to go by, though, future games from this studio promise to feature interesting and engaging gameplay.
Prologue
The only game currently listed on the PlayerUnknown Productions website is Prologue, a game Greene has been working on for a couple of years now. Not a huge amount is known about the game, though Greene did release an atmospheric trailer in 2019. The game is being described as a unique exploration of gameplay and technology, which is an exciting prospect and could possibly refer to technology like VR. It also promises to give players unique and memorable experiences every time they play, which indicates the game will be developed with replayability in mind.
The short teaser trailer for Prologue had a noticeably spooky atmosphere, which could mean a move into horror for Greene. This is an exciting prospect, as experimental games often suit the horror genre exceedingly well. While it's unclear yet if Prologue will be narrative-driven, Greene has indicated that it is indeed a prologue to something else. Seeing how Greene navigates marrying gameplay and narrative will be interesting to see.
Overall, the move to creating his own studio is an interesting one for Greene, and one definitely worth following. Often hailed as the father of the battle royale trend in games, Greene obviously has a good insight into how to create fun and memorable gameplay. Whether this insight will be enough to make his new studio successful remains to be seen, but no matter what, Greene will still go down in gaming history for creating a worldwide phenomenon like PUBG.
PUBG: Battlegrounds is currently available on PC, PS4, Stadia, Xbox One, and mobile devices.