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The big rumor last week was that Tencent, the biggest game company in the world, had bought a 5 percent stake in Bluehole Studio, the South Korean developer behind one of the most talked-about games of 2017: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. It hadn't, though the talks between the Chinese PC and mobile gaming behemoth and Bluehole are ongoing.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has become so huge that Bluehole has created a subsidiary to manage the online multiplayer shooter. This is important, because so many people are playing that it's making it hard to keep the servers up. Bluehole addressed this today, and we'll see if things improve or not.
Meanwhile, Fortnite said that it had 7 million players between its standard and free-to-play Battle Royale modes ... on consoles. This is significant, because PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds isn't on the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 yet. It's still on PC. And Fortnite's take on the last-player-standing model is free.
It's amazing that we're seeing these blockbuster numbers for two base games that are still in Early Access development — people pay to play these ($30 for PUBG, $40 for Fortnite) before they officially release, dealing with bugs and changes and providing feedback (and money) to the developers.
As for me, the pull of Divinity: Original Sin II continues to dominate my PC gaming time. It's one of the best role-playing games I've ever played. It's also huge, full of side-quests. At this rate, I'll finish in ... March?
For PC gaming coverage, send news tips to Jeff Grubb and guest post submissions to Rowan Kaiser. Please be sure to visit our PC Gaming Channel. —Jason Wilson, GamesBeat managing editor | | FROM THE PC GAMING CHANNEL | | |
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