Bluehole spins off PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds into a dedicated company

The breakout success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), which recently broke 1.5 million concurrent users on Valve's Steam platform, has is corporate owner Bluehole spinning off a subsidiary dedicated to the game.

Known for a somewhat buggy physics engine, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has proven a smash hit. Despite still being in Early Access on Valve's Steam platform following a delay to the launch schedule, the game has seen upwards of 1.5 million players running the game simultaneously, an impressive 10 percent of Steam's concurrent user peak. Based on the every man for himself model popularised by the film and manga series Battle Royale, the game sees a hundred players fighting it out on an island with an ever-decreasing playable area which forces them together until only one is left alive.

The game's success has been a boon for owner Bluehole, which has now announced the launch of a spin-off company dedicated solely to the game's development: PUBG Corporation. Based in South Korea's Seoul and with an office in Wisconsin, development lead Chang Han Kim takes on the role of the newly-formed company's chief executive officer.

'Given PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds global success, we want to ensure that we have the operational efficiency that is required to support the game globally,' explains Kim. 'This new structure allows us to be nimble as we look towards the expansion of strategic business opportunities that include the game’s potential in the esports sector and the growth of PUBG as a true global IP [intellectual property] franchise.'

Bluehole's baby is under threat, however, from a new raft of rival Battle Royale titles, including a new game mode for Epic Games' free-to-play Fortnite which includes the same 100-player scale as its inspiration.