PUBG now free-to-play across all platforms

pocket-lint.com:

(Pocket-lint) — PUBG: Battlegrounds is now officially free to play across all platforms, stripping away its price of entry to make sure that anyone can try out the hit battle royale game without having to pay anything for the privelege.

While the game has at times been on Xbox Game Pass and the like, making it available to play for low or no cost, this is a major shift for it overall, and could potentially see it reach a wider audience than ever before, even despite its huge popularity at its peak.

With a more slowed-down tactical pace, it offers an alternative to more action-packed and gung-ho battle royale games like Call of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends, so there could well still be a big niche for it to fill now that console players can more easily access it.

The developers have taken an interesting approach to layering in a premium tier, though, by restricting ranked play to those who purchase a one-time account upgrade to access Battlegrounds Plus, which costs $12.99 and also brings some XP upgrades and in-game items.

This is a deterrent against cheating in ranked modes, apparently, and has prompted calls from some Warzone players for Raven Software to adopt the same approach for the Call of Duty title (something we can't see happening anytime soon).

You can grab PUBG for free on consoles, on Stadia and PC now, so be sure to get it downloaded if you've never tried to secure your own Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner moment.