PUBG Creator is looking at using blockchain technology in his next ambitious multiplayer game

When Brendan Greene (aka PlayerUnknown) left PUBG, it was to create something new – as most game developers are inclined to do from time to time. He started a new studio, PlayerUnknown Productions, and began work on a new open-world project currently called Artemis, (we’re sure the name will change at some point), a very ambitious massively multiplayer title that requires the creation of its own engine to achieve its lofty goals. This is what he has been doing ever since.

During this time, blockchain technology and NFTs have obviously taken hold in the minds of developers as the “next big thing”, often to the chagrin of players. It should be said that like many new technologies, blockchain can be incredibly useful, especially in the gaming space. It’s about how people use it. So far, many games that have used blockchain, especially NFTs, seem to have had more negative impact than positive. So when someone like Brendan Greene comes along and says he’s looking at blockchain for his next project—even while he’s walking around saying “NFTs,” players think he’s looking at doing NFTs.

The topic came up for Greene during an interview on Nathan Brown’s Hit Points, where he addressed the metaverse-like nature of Artemis and the issues that come with it being so strongly related to blockchain and NFTs. During the interview, he stated that he is “just going to do what [he’s] shall do.” He went on to add, “It is this thing [they] want to create, and it’s going to give people a lot of fun, a lot of joy, and a lot of meaningful things to do.” He also stated that it doesn’t matter if it’s called the metaverse, he doesn’t care what it’s called.

What Greene cares about – according to the interview – is that he feels players should have the ability to “extract value from a digital place”. He believes that players should be able to do things that make them money, but clarifies that it’s not about advertising for big name companies that already have a lot of money, but “a kid called AwesomePickle who sells cool skins because he understands what people want” .

Although Greene didn’t mention NFTs in the interview, people have taken it to imply that’s what he was getting at, or at best they assume that Artemis will be a full blockchain project. Greene addressed this assumption on Twitter, saying that while the company is considering using blockchain, it won’t be the basis of the game.

Not completely. We consider blockchain, or a future development of this technology, as a tool in our digital space, not the foundation of it.

— PLAYERUNKNOWN (@PLAYERUNKNOWN) 28 September 2022

While that doesn’t necessarily negate the use of NFTs in Artemis, it should at least mean that it won’t be something players have to get involved with in order to play. It’s also worth noting that what Greene describes doesn’t sound all that different from games like Second Life, where players have been able to make real-world money through the game’s systems by creating whatever they feel like. Maybe if blockchain was applied to something like that, it wouldn’t be anywhere near the trajectory we all think it is.