PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds creator on the crate-and-key debacle: "Our messaging wasn’t very clear"
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds creator Brendan Greene penned a new blog post to address fan concerns over the recently announced cosmetic crates and microtransactions.
Greene started by saying that he owed it to the fans to address the reaction. The biggest point of contention has to do with a promise Greene made when PUBG first hit Steam Early Access. In short, the creator promised not to sell cosmetic items during Early Access.
Clearly, this won't be the case, and he wanted to explain why. "While our intention was and still is to add the full feature to the game when we move into actual release, we do need to test it prior to launch and at Early Access so that it is stable and ready to be fully introduced to our community," he wrote on Steam.
"I do understand your concerns about the system, but I feel testing for a sturdy economy on the Steam Marketplace is necessary at this stage and ultimately beneficial for the game. You will still get a fully featured game, with a polished Battle Royale game-mode, a wide variety of weapons and vehicles to play with, stat tracking, ranking and leaderboard systems, 2D and 3D replays and much more."
With that in mind, Greene admitted that the messaging "wasn’t very clear," and apologised for the confusion this may have caused.
"The process of communicating our intentions precisely to our fans and communities should have been done in a more careful and prudent manner. I’ve learned a lot, and we’ll try to communicate better moving forward."
In addition, Greene also noted that the way cosmetics will be doled out at launch is still being discussed, and hinted at a system whereby players are able to get free cosmetics by playing.
The blog post also saw the game's creator detail how the system is going to work. Similar to what's already in the game, players will still be limited to six crates every week, with the increasing prices being reset on Monday. Also similar to how things are today, items you find in these crates can be traded on the Steam Marketplace.
As for the two free crates coming with the monthly patch on August 3, here's everything you'll find in each one.
Survivor Crate, free-to-open
Wanderer Crate free-to-open
The third, limited-time crate will be available only during gamescom. This is the one that's going to include the Battle Royale-themed skins, and cost $2.50 to open.