PlayerUnknown's Prologue will launch as a pay-what-you-want tech demo

Brendan Greene — (Image credit: PlayerUnknown)

Having recently left PUBG studio Krafton, Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene is ready to tease a little more of what he's up to with his new studio PlayerUnknown Productions.

In a video posted earlier today, Greene gave us a little more insight on Prologue. A project that first debuted in 2019, Prologue is the first step towards Greene's vision of massive open worlds full of thousands of players, providing a test-bed for the technologies he wants to explore with his new studio.

pic.twitter.com/dipZpUSeNYSeptember 3, 2021

Prologue will be the first trial of the studio's machine learning world generation. Dropping you into a massive open world that generates afresh on runtime, you'll be tasked with making it across to a set point in the map, gathering resources and facing hazardous weather conditions.

“There will be no guidance, no path for you to follow. Just a world, a spot on the map to reach, and the tools needed to get there."

Given that it's more about the world generation that gameplay, Greene has described Prologue as more "tech demo" than game. To that end, Prologue will also be pay-what-you-want, letting you play it for free or chip in a few quid if you feel like supporting the studio's work.

Greene notes that he'll be sharing more details in an interview with GamesBeat tomorrow.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.