Prologue: Go Wayback. | Image: Krafton
It’s been a while since we heard from Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, best known as the creator of the global battle royale hit PUBG. But now, Greene’s studio, PlayerUnknown Productions, is detailing what it’s working on — and there are multiple games in the works, all pointing toward a big final project.
First up is a game called Prologue: Go Wayback!, described as a “single-player open-world emergent game within the survival genre,” which was previously teased in 2021. The big hook, it seems, is technical, as the game is being built with “machine-learning-driven terrain generation technology, allowing the instant creation of millions of maps.” Prologue is expected to launch in early access on Steam in 2025, following a series of playtests. To showcase what players can expect, the studio is launching a free tech demo on Steam today called Preface: Undiscovered World. You can check it out right here.
According to the studio, these games are building blocks on the way to a more ambitious game currently codenamed “Artemis,” which will be a “massive multiplayer sandbox experience.” Greene previously talked about Artemis back in 2022; it was originally billed as a game with NFT support, though today’s announcement has no mention of NFTs. Here’s Greene on what players can eventually expect as the studio builds toward its big game:
My vision for Artemis is challenging, but we plan to take it one step at a time and the three games aim to give us a solid tech foundation on which to scale up. After Prologue, two more games are planned for release in the coming years, each addressing critical technical challenges that will bring the studio closer to the final product. With Prologue, we aim to engage players and introduce them to the emergent mechanics and expansive worlds we’re developing.
Greene first stepped away from PUBG with a new studio in 2019 — it was known under the name “PUBG Special Projects” — and two years later announced that he was leaving PUBG parent company Krafton to go independent. “Today, I’m excited to take the next step on my journey to create the kind of experience I’ve envisaged for years,” he said at the time.
