‘PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ Tests Respawn-Enabled ‘War’ Mode

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds helped to popularize the “battle royale” genre that we’ve now seen absolutely explode, but there are evidently players who are interested in using the game’s mechanics for a traditional deathmatch mode. It’s now available to a select group of players as “War,” and there’s a chance you could try it out as well.

“War,” like deathmatch modes in other shooters, allows players to respawn after they’ve been killed. This differs from the main mode in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which only gives each player a single life.

The mode begins with players dropping into a relatively small portion of the game’s original map, and a timer visible in the top portion of the screen alerts you to when players are going to respawn again. Unlike the other modes, which force you to scavenge for gear after parachuting down, “War” gives you a gun and supplies right out of the gate. Given the number of players battling it out in such a small area, this is a wise choice.

The mode was originally included in Arma 3: Battle Royale, a mod Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene had worked on prior to developing Battlegrounds. He had previously expressed interest in putting the mode in the newer game, which likely means it will roll out more widely in the future — and possibly come to Xbox or the mobile game.

With the recent success of other battle royale games, it appears to be taking a toll on PUBG Corp, the studio behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The company is currently suing the Chinese publisher NetEase, responsible for the games Rules of Survival and Knives Out, claiming they were intentionally released on mobile platforms before PUBG Mobile had launched in order to grab its market share. The company also took issue with the use of its famous “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” slogan, which has become synonymous with Battlegrounds over the last year.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is currently available on Xbox One and PC, as well as on iOS and Android as PUBG Mobile. The latter game is a port of the PC version, complete with touch screen controls and voice chat, and it’s a surprisingly faithful adaptation.