PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has Early Access period extended

2017’s biggest surprise hit will spend a bit longer in Early Access than had been previously expected.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was released in March and from the off developer Brendan ‘PlayerUnknown’ Greene has insisted that the title would exit Early Access within six months. That target is now going to be missed.

Over the past few months I have done a lot of interviews, and in many of them, I said we hoped to be out of Early Access six months after we first launched,” Greene said. I’ve come to realize that restricting the window to a specific month could hinder us from delivering a fully featured game and/or lead to disappointment within the community if the launch deadline is not met.

So, we have decided that we are going push the full launch back a bit from the initial six-month timeframe, but want to assure you that we are still planning a full release before the end of Q4 2017.

We will continue to push weekly and monthly updates until full launch as we want to ensure that the game we release is the best version possible. This is why we’re giving a launch window rather than an exact date. We hope this makes sense, and appreciate your understanding.”

The six-month target always seemed highly ambitious, especially in a day and age where lots of titles seem to perpetually exist in a state of permanent pre-release.

However, as recently as this week stories were appearing with Greene still strongly affirming the commitment.

People tell us we’re not going to be out of early access in six months; challenge accepted,” he told Rock Paper Shotgun. I can guarantee you, six or seven months and we’re out of early access. It’s the team. It’s a matter of honour, you know? We will finish this game in six months."