Tencent games – the company behind PUBG Mobile – pushed out a new update for the game earlier today and it brings a ton of new changes and updates to the game. Being a PUBG player myself, I obviously played a couple of games in the new first-person mode, and checked out the shop and the new challenges; and the one thing that stuck out to me, is that PUBG Mobile is clearly worried about being overshadowed by Fortnite on mobile too, like on PCs and consoles all over the world.
If you’re in the Fortnite camp, I’m sure you need no convincing that PUBG is (and should be) worried about its place in the world of mobile gaming. However, if you’re in the PUBG camp, let me tell you just why this update is a clear indication that PUBG is trying very hard to be Fortnite, before Fortnite can come and steal PUBG’s players from Android as well.
Royale Pass
In the new update, PUBG has added what it’s calling ‘Royale Pass.’ Royale Pass will basically unlock a bunch of challenges for players, which, when completed, will reward players with in-game money, cosmetic upgrades, and in-game items.
Fortnite has had a ‘Battle Pass’ for a while now (in the fourth season currently), and it also offers players a bunch of challenges to complete within the duration of the season, to win cosmetic upgrades, V-bucks (the in-game currency), and XP.
What’s more, Fortnite’s Battle Pass also has a free tier. This gives players fewer challenges, and the rewards aren’t as many, or as cool. Guess what? PUBG Mobile has a free ‘Royale Pass’ as well now, and it works exactly the same way as Fortnite’s ‘Battle Pass.’
Obviously it isn’t wrong of PUBG Mobile to implement a concept of ‘Royale Pass’ into the game; after all, it adds a different dimension to the game, and offers players another reason to come back and play the game more and for longer. However, it’s the fact that PUBG Mobile is only now bringing features that are an exact replica of Fortnite’s features that makes it feel like PUBG is scared of Fortnite’s popularity.
Emotes
Yet another thing that PUBG has implemented in the new 0.6.0 update to PUBG Mobile is the ability for players to use ’emotes’ in the game. For anyone who hasn’t played Fortnite in their life (who are you, really?), these are basically character-actions that you can make use of within the game. They don’t offer any tactical advantage, and instead are purely there for fun.
Fortnite’s emotes are a very highly used action in the game. Before every game, you’ll spot a bunch of players showing off the emotes they’ve acquired, and basically having fun before they drop down from the Battle Bus and try to kill each other.
PUBG Isn’t Fortnite and It Shouldn’t Try to Be
I wouldn’t have an issue with PUBG Mobile introducing features from Fortnite into the game. After all, these features can add yet another reason for you to come back to the game; with emotes, the game becomes a lot more lighthearted. However, PUBG isn’t a lighthearted game the way Fortnite is, and that’s the core of the problem here.
Fortnite has always been a game that has taken battle royale, and the concept of killing other players in a fun, lighthearted manner. That’s very visible in everything Fortnite does. The graphics are playful, shooting at an enemy pops up the amount of damage you’ve done in a comical font, characters don’t die, but simply vanish from the field dropping all of their items. Throw things like emotes into that mix, and they blend in perfectly.
Emotes offer players yet a fun way of expressing themselves in a game that doesn’t take itself seriously in a genre that is essentially about killing 99 people and being the last man standing. For heaven’s sake, Fortnite uses a Battle Bus flying with the help of a balloon to drop players on the field.
PUBG, on the other hand, has never been a lighthearted game. It has always been a game with realistic graphics, blood animations, and explosions that look very much like actual explosions (or at least get close). Players are dropped onto the playing field from an aeroplane, and the guns, kevlar vests, and helmets are all made to look as real as possible. Things like emotes in such a game make little to no sense, and is clearly an indication that the developers are at least a little worried about the way Fortnite is making inroads into every gamer’s console, PC, iPhone, and even the Nintendo Switch.
So yeah, the latest update for PUBG Mobile may not rebrand the game as ‘PUBG with a Fortnite Crisis,’ but it goes to show that the developers are now realizing that they’ve got some catching up to do, or they might miss the (battle) bus.
hey bro thanks for the article it was really interesting and informative i loved the way you made points to make people understand nice information keep posting
hey, buddy, your article was really helpful and informative the way you put forward your thoughts was interesting thanks for the article keep posting such articles
Dude pubg is known for its real graphics they both are best its not like pubg is trying to become fortnite i know you like more pubg then fornite
Fortnite sucks . Pubg is fire on mobile . Fortnite has less players than pubg on every damn device. How dare you say about pubg ? ????
????????haha wtf publisher pubg is way more Better than fucking fortnite pubg has realistic graphics and have many more super cool features and on the other hand fortnite looks like a cartoonic game chracters look like cartoons as fortnite is for kids????
Fortnite has already done the greatest mistake by not launching in android. Android being the most widely used mobile OS, they still ignored it. PUBG has already taken android platforms. So, there’s no chance for Fortnite to compete with PUBG mobile. Moreover Fortnite is 200% unrealistic. I hope what the graphics settings in Fortnite be? Ha ha ha…cartoon-unrealistic-super unrealistic.
Ha ha
Hate your opinion
Bro don’t compare pubg with fortnite . Pubg is great better then fortnite . Fortnite is a cartoon game . It dosent look like a battle game , it looks like a fairy tale . Pubg is a real battle grounds where peoples battle to live . PUBG PUBG PUBG ????
Fuck fortnite .
Fortnite is guy n a lot of keys n so unrealistic its for kids
What I feel is Fortnite was a cheap copy of PubG. Calm down there! Then Fortnite got enough fame and recognition to be a stand-alone competition to PubG. What I suggest telling PubG developers and Creators is, no matter what bull crap Epic Games may pull on us, there will still be quite a number of people who are dedicated to PubG for it’s good and mature graphics (unlike the kiddish ones on Fortnite). Let it please not be another Fortnite as PubG is more respected as from the place I see it.
Can PUBG will run on 2 GB ram phones
Pubg is the best
Uhhh mom? Don’t both games belong to Tencent?
That’s like Diablo and Warcraft being worried about Starcraft’s success…
Definitely written by a fortnite fanboy battle pass and emotes was originally introduced by Dota so basically it was fortnite who copied it and from the topic of copying I remember how fortnite copied the whole concept of battle Royal from pubg
U faggot u know nothing about emotes before fortnite their are emotes in pubg PC and also there are tons of emotes in Chinese version of pubg mobile before this version as well and for ur information the emotes of pubg and fortnite are far different from each other u are just spreading the wrong information and just demotivating the pubg players
Go play ur childish fortnite and earn some useless v bucks
And by the way
Fortnite is shit
Pubg has a place of his own like a realistic experiences not like fortnite with unbelievable incidents happening all around u
fucking toxic fortnite fanboy
Oh wow look this article was written by a fucking Fortnite fanboy. Seriously? Emotes are only from Fortnite? Pubg pc has had them from quite a while now. The only valid point this man made was adding of the royale pass all the other points are just half assed attempts to downplay pubg. Pubg added emotes to make fun of people after you kill them, not for showing off stupid dances or weird emotes. Fortnite is for children, pubg is not.
Don’t like fortnite and I hope pubg doesn’t try to be like fornite.
Dude PUBG mobile isn’t worried abot Fortnite, why you ask? PUBG mobile is published by Tencent games, the game related subbrand of the Chinese conglomerate Tencent and Fortnite developer Epic games is also owned by Tencent. In short both these games indirectly belong to the same brand