PUBG: Battlegrounds is ending support for the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game this November, Krafton has confirmed. After that, console players will have to pick up a PS5 or Xbox Series X if they want to continue playing the game.
This announcement comes shortly after MiHoYo similarly confirmed its intention to end support for the PS4 version of Genshin Impact. Five years into the PS5 and Xbox Series X’s lifespan, it seems publishers are finally ready to leave the generation of consoles that came before them behind.
When will support for PUBG on PS4 and Xbox One end?
And why is support ending?
The PUBG development team confirmed in a post on the game’s website that it will be ending PS4 and Xbox One support following server maintenance on November 13 of this year. A specific start time for the maintenance was not given.
Thankfully, all account data and microtransaction purchases players made will carry over if they decide to continue playing PUBG on another platform. Refunds are also possible, although Krafton is deferring to the PlayStation and Xbox support teams to handle that.
Come November 13, it’ll no longer be possible to download or play PUBG on PS4 or Xbox One. PS5 players will have to go to the PlayStation Store and download the game manually again to play it on PS5, while Xbox players should see the current-gen version of the game pop up in their library automatically.
If you’re still playing PUBG on PS4 or Xbox One, you’re probably wondering why this is happening. The developers felt similarly, saying the decision came “after long and careful consideration, in pursuit of the continued growth and long-term future of PUBG Console.”
In its message confirming this end of support, the PUBG development team explains that this decision was made “to provide our players with a more stable gameplay environment on console and ensure a smoother, more seamless experience with future updates.”
The post goes on to claim that this change will enable larger and more frequent updates to the console versions of PUBG in the future.
While this announcement may come as a disappointment, it is worth noting that those last-gen platforms both launched nearly 12 years ago, while PUBG came to Xbox One in 2017 and PS4 in 2018. Supporting hardware that old limits what developers can do with a video game.
All console versions of the game will be receiving resolution and frame rate boosts following the transition, which is the most immediate benefit of this transition. It’s definitely a bummer that some players will be left behind as game consoles are getting more expensive, but more developers are coming to the conclusion that supporting PS4 and Xbox One is no longer viable for them.
