New Bluehole Subsidiary Has Major Esports Implications

Earlier this week, Bluehole announced the foundation of a new subsidiary company, known as PUBG Corp.

The studio reports that the new subsidiary will help expand the reach of their game across the world. According to CEO Chang Han Kim, they founded the corporation to ensure their games future as a “True Global IP.” Bluehole, of course, is the studio behind the hit game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

In the game, players parachute into a massive world with 99 other players, anywhere on the map. Once on the ground, these players loot, fight, and kill to survive in a battle-royale format.

The Bluehole Boom

Within its first five months, PUBG has already become one of the world’s most popular games, both play and to watch. Just weeks ago, the popular multiplayer game became the second ever to attain more than one million concurrent players on Steam, beating out legendary titles such as CS:GO and GTA V.

In August, the shooter made headlines by becoming the first game in four years to surpass LoL on Twitch for a full month. Clearly, Bluehole have created a winning formula at their studios.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/578080/PLAYERUNKNOWNS_BATTLEGROUNDS/

 

With such a large, passionate fanbase, the growth of a grassroots eSports scene was practically inevitable. Within months, independent tourney organizers amassed thousands of viewers for makeshift online events featuring the top squads of the game.

Soon, major organizations began to take notice of the game’s popularity. Team SoloMid, Cloud9, and team Liquid have already formed teams within the game. In August, Bluehole hosted the game’s first official tournament, at Gamescom 2017. Despite a few hiccups, the event brilliantly showcased the multiplayer title’s bright future in a competitive setting.

The Future of PUBG Esports

Beyond its budding popularity, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds isn’t quite “esports ready,” as fans of the game have come to call it. Its spectator mode is still shoddy at best, and the game is still riddled with early access bugs. In addition, tourney organizers have struggled to resolve the difficulties of holding 100-man games.

There is still a long way to go for the growing game. Fortunately, the creation of PUBG Corp. could change that. In the past, Bluehole has set aside esports as an afterthought, preferring to work through the games kinks as it trudges forwards through early access. Due to its unexpectedly high playerbase, basic functions such as sever maintenance have become extremely challenging. This has hindered development of a blossoming esports scene.

 

Fortunately, the new corporation will more easily be able to accomplish this task, while Bluehole works on the game itself back in their South Korean headquarters. Given their success with ESL, and the interest their competitive scene has achieved, it’s only a matter of time before the young corporation fully commits to progaming.

This new company is simply an outlet for them to work towards this goal, without hindering their development progress. Who knows? Maybe in a couple years, the PUBG World Championships will earn hundreds of thousands of viewers. The future looks bright for PUBG esports, especially with PUBG Corp. in tow

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