PUBG Creator Says His Life Hasn't Changed Much But Now He Buys Nice Wine And Sunglasses

PUBG launched on Steam Early Access back in March and quickly became one of the biggest games on the planet. In its unfinished state, the $30 Hunger Games-like shooter sold more than 13 million copies and it continues to grow. With an Xbox One version coming later this year, sales stand to climb higher still. The game's enormous success has surely personally benefited creator Brendan Greene AKA Playerunknown. He is now financially secure, but he is not spending money on extravagant things like cars or a mansion. Greene told GameSpot at PAX Aus today that his life "hasn't changed."

The big difference is that Greene "live[s] in hotels now," as he travels the world to promote PUBG. For instance, Greene was in California for TwitchCon just days ago before flying to Melbourne this week for PAX Aus. His day-to-day life, however, is still largely the same, outside of buying nice sunglasses and wine from time to time.

"I'm comfortable now in that I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from, which is nice," Greene said. "My daughter doesn't need to worry now. I can provide for her. Day to day, my life hasn't changed much. I wear the same clothes. I don't go out and splurge on stuff. I do have a nice collection of Prada sunglasses. Apart from that, I don't splurge on myself. I might get a bottle of wine now and again that's nice. Apart from that my life hasn't changed. I travel a lot more and that's it, really."

It's not just PUBG that Greene has made money from. The game H1Z1 licensed Greene's Battle Royale mode, which represents another source of income for Greene.

Also in our interview, Greene said he is fortunate to have a great team around him that he can trust. While he is not very involved in the game's development on a day-to-day basis anymore, he still has the title of creative director and continues to make key decisions about the future of the game.

"I am lucky that I have such a great team. I know the people involved. They are just such smart people that it'll be incredibly hard for us to f**k this up. It makes me relax. I know the plan we have," Greene explained.

He also spoke generally about the response to PUBG. Greene said Bluehole never anticipated the game would ever get as big as it is. "We've been left speechless," he explained. The game's concurrent user (CCU) numbers have exploded, recently surpassing 2 million on Steam, outpacing Valve games CS: GO and Dota 2--and all others--by a huge margin.

"When we broke a million; that was kind of like, 'What the f**k,'" Greene said. "We thought H1Z1 was our obvious competitor. We were thinking 100-150k would be a good CCU to be at. And then we flew past them, [and then CS GO] and then we flew by [DOTA 2] and it was like, 'What the f**k.' "We just want to make a good game."

PUBG's massive and rapid success has affected the development of PUBG. As with basically all big games, there will be a group of players who do not enjoy the changes that a developer makes, and PUBG is no different.

"Because of our player numbers, a lot of things are harder to do now," Greene said. "You have to worry about this larger player base. If we were still 10-15k they would forgive you more than 2 million people. It's been a challenge."

For more on PUBG, check out GameSpot's recent stories below.

• PUBG Creator Confirms No Single-Player, Wants PC/Xbox One Cross-Play
• PUBG's Vaulting Will Change The Game "Severely," Creator Says