It’s been more than 30 years since it was originally released, but KRAFTON is excited to be re-releasing the 1991 arcade cult-classic, PLAYEROMNOM’S BATTLEGROUNDS (POBG), for a new generation of gamers to experience. While it would go on to inspire PUBG and the Battle Royale genre as a whole, POBG was as much a pioneer of its time as it was a short-lived phenomenon.
About POBG
Initially released in 1991, POBG is an action-oriented top-down single-player shooter. The game challenged players to battle it out on early versions of what would eventually become classic PUBG maps, including Erangel, Karakin and Sanhok. The goal of the game was to outwit and outgun an army of curmudgeonly chickens or risk a world where birds with brains roughly the size of a few peanuts literally rule the roost.
Where and How To Play
As KRAFTON celebrates PUBG’s fourth anniversary, we wanted to look back on the game’s legacy and make its spiritual predecessor available to play for fans around the world. POBG is currently playable through the lobby in PUBG on PC today through April 12 and will be available for console players from April 8 through April 19.
“As it’s been well documented, the original release of POBG had an issue before it was rolled out to arcades throughout the U.S.,” said Herman Havoc, PUBG Head of Development. “Sure, an undiscovered manufacturer’s defect in the motherboards led to a bunch of fires and power grid failures throughout the country, but it was the ‘90s. Things happen. No one was hurt, but we still had to recall and destroy all known POBG cabinets. But the game was just too good to leave it in ‘storage,’ so we figured out how to get it running on modern hardware and boom, now you can play it in PUBG. A game within a game!”
And if you didn’t catch it, the well-respected arcade-focused investigative news program, The Quarter Reporter, recently did a segment on POBG, prompting us to revisit the game and bring it to modern gamers. We also dug through our old archives for the original press release announcing the game. Check it out and let us know if you need any questions.
Also be sure to check out the latest details at www.pubg.com or follow on social media (YouTube / Twitter / Instagram / Facebook / Twitch). For further assets and press releases, please visit the official PUBG press room.
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Note to Editor:
In all seriousness, thanks for having fun with us here. We couldn’t wait to release POBG out into the wild, and we hope you and your readers enjoy the game as much as we have. We also wanted to give a shout out to IMGN.pro, which partnered with Krafton to develop the game and bring our vision to life. Let us know if you have any questions, and thanks again.