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The PC and console version of PUBG suffered a review bomb from angry players in response to the game’s transition to a free-to-play model. On Steam, the game is currently sitting at mixed reviews after a slew of negative reviews filled its store page.
Since it was a paid game priced at $29.99 prior to its free-to-play transition on January 12th, many players have voiced their displeasure, demanding refunds. While developer Krafton has implemented bonuses and various additional features for owners of the game prior to the transition, these have done little to assuage the player base’s ire.
Besides players demanding refunds, another issue raised by players includes the increase in the number of cheaters. Players are worried that with the game being more accessible than ever, the game’s cheating and hacking problems will also become more rampant.
It’s also worth noting that ever since the game went free-to-play, the game has doubled its Steam player count in the past month, according to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad.
PUBG hit 670k peak concurrent players on Steam today, after going free to play.
This is double its usual concurrent user figure in the past month.
However, the game also received 13x the usual number of negative reviews from people that previously paid / annoyed by cheaters. https://t.co/kX1jmpjawu
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 12, 2022
The current predicament surrounding PUBG isn’t the first instance of players getting upset at a paid game going free-to-play. Back in December 2018, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive suffered the same problem after it went free-to-play.
Realistically, the review bomb seems unlikely to affect PUBG in the long term. The PUBG franchise’s popularity and success are simply too immense, with its mobile version and its successor, PUBG: New State going strong.
