PUBG Just Got A New Name

PlayerUnkown's Battlegrounds officially has a new name which is still the same but different, as Krafton has rechristened the battle royale to PUBG Battlegrounds. If you ignore the acronym title that the game has commonly been referred to since it launched several years ago, that means that PUBG Battlegrounds essentially stands for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Battlegrounds.

As spotted by PC Gamer, the name change took place in July, with the PlayerUnknown portion of the title being essentially buried on Steam in favor of the PUBG title.

"Krafton is actively expanding the PUBG brand through a variety of new experiences set in its universe," a PR representative said to PC Gamer. "Rebranding PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds to PUBG: Battlegrounds is the first step in us realizing this vision. Additional titles in the franchise will carry the PUBG name, as you see with our upcoming game, PUBG: New State."

The move kind of makes sense given how Krafton is busy developing its own metaverse with "PUBG Universe" games such as the survival-horror The Callisto Protocol from the creators of Dead Space, which is set several centuries in the future of that universe.

There's also PUBG: New State, a battle royale for mobile devices that is still scheduled to be released later this year, which has a slightly futuristic setting as well. On top of all that, Castlevania's Adi Shankar is busy developing an animated series as well.

Could it all be a masterful piece of viral advertising that's waiting for Jonathan Frakes to apply some Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction energy to? Probably not.