PUBG communications manager Ryan Ringey has recently moved to end rumours spreading on Reddit that Playerunknown's Battlegrounds was a so-called asset flip, this after several people noticed the use of items in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds that were similar to those found in other games.
This includes pre-made items offered on storefronts for engines like Unity or Unreal, whether they be buildings, chairs or even character models. These kinds of assets are often used to speed up the production of a game, and to save money too. In the case of PUBG, several were used during the creation of Erangel, the first map that launched for the game in March of last year.
"If you're just starting up a team, you've got to lean on asset store work because that's the only way you can spin up a game fast, and for a reasonable price, to quickly find the fun. Hiring an art team of 40 people to 'try a game' and 'see if it's fun' is simply not a smart way to workâthis is what the asset store is for! It's a great resource for teams that want to work smart."
According to Ringey, ever since the release of Erangel the studio is spending more time on creating its own assets, but they won't make everything in the game as it simply doesn't make sense to do so. However, Ringey reckons that second map Mirimar and the upcoming Sanhok rely less on store-bought assets, especially with the PUBG team now having its own dedicated art team based in Wisconsin.
A fourth map was teased during Microsoft's E3 conference last week, and apparently it'll be somewhere between Erangel and Sanhok in terms of size.