Controversial: PUBG Corp will be adding the ability to create custom matches in Battlegrounds. Many fans have been asking for this feature. However, the company also talked about locking it behind a paywall.
As PUBG and Fortnite continue to battle for top spot in the battle royale market, both developers continue to come up with ideas to keep players visiting their servers. Epic's strategy seems to be changing radically Fortnite with every season offering new themed content. PUBG Corp's philosophy is to add highly requested features every so often.
Today Battlegrounds developers announced that they will be beta testing custom matchmaking on its test servers. The highly requested feature will allow players to change just about every detail of a match.
"Customize every aspect of the game, from circle behavior, item/vehicle spawn rates, to loadouts and more. You can even create and customize War Mode and Zombie Mode game types, then invite as many (or few) players as you want to join. Create private matches for friends, or public games so the whole world can enjoy your creation."
Surely fans will be happy to hear of the new addition to the game. What they might not be so thrilled to learn is that PUBG Corp might start charging for the feature once it is out of the testing phase. The developer stopped short of saying how much custom matchmaking would cost or what form it would take (subscription, one-time fee, etc.), but said that they would be open to feedback regarding the system once it has been implemented.
Early feedback on the feature does not look promising for the developers' idea. Most are saying that it should be free or at least come with no charge until PUBG fixes all the bugs that have remained in the game practically since its early release.
In response to the announcement's statement, "We may [charge] in the future to ensure everything runs smoothly," SgtDeathAdder piped in, "LMAO, yes like the main game runs smoothly right? F'ck pubgcorp."
Players expressing that they were okay paying for custom matches suggested charging BP (in-game currency) rather than actual cash. A few said they thought $10 would be fair.
"Make it cost a few thousand BP to make a custom game perhaps? To limit people starting tons of BS games at least."
No matter how the developers choose to implement the system there are going to be those that complain, but there is an argument for adding such a restriction. If everybody were allowed to create custom matches for free, it would not take long at all for the servers to get cluttered with lobbies populated with zero players aside from the host. That said, I have seen numerous games in the past that allowed players to host matches without charging for the privilege.
PUBG did not mention a timeline for full implementation of the feature. For now, it is available for free on test servers while they continue to make tweaks and optimizations. Enjoy it while it lasts.