PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is going free-to-play for a week meaning free chicken dinner for everyone. The popular battle royale will start its foray into free-to-play on August 10th and, while it may last only a week, insiders have speculated that this could be the start of a new era for the game.
The free period later will also coincide with a collaboration the game has with K-pop group Blackpink which starts on August 8th on PC and 12th on consoles and will redecorate the game in the band's colors. According to PCGamesN, this change also matches up with claims made by popular leaker PlayerIGN, who stated that a free-to-play period was coming in August in order to see how players felt about a transition to a permanent free model and even said that PUBG has been planning a potential switch for some time.
Regardless of intentions, this is another good opportunity to check out the game without opening your wallet. The permanent switch to free-to-play would make sense given the push of microtransactions into the game since its release. It's also notable that the game's biggest competitors - Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty Warzone - have always been free and a switch now could launch PUBG back into the conversation.
On another note, the game also received a name change. PUBG is no more - it is now PUBG: Battlegrounds. Ridiculous naming conventions aside, PC Gamer reported that the change was to differentiate the game from future entries in the "PUBG Universe." For one, PUBG: New State is an upcoming release from the studio bearing the name of its predecessor and Krafton has noted that they have more planned for the franchise. Apparently, this change happened back in July, yet the bizarre name mostly flew under the radar, likely because PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Battlegrounds just sounds too absurd to be true.
PUBG becomes free next week, so get in on the free battle royale action while you can.