Bluehole, the studio behind the massive battle royale shooter hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, announced today that it is creating a subsidiary, PUBG Corp., to handle the development and business growth of the game.
PUBG has been available on PC in Early Access since March. It has already sold more than 13 million copies, according to Bluehole. The developer also noted that it has had more than 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam. That was a new record, beating the juggernaut Dota 2. And an Xbox One version is coming out later this year. This last-person-standing shooter huge, and it is growing. It’s already attracted competitors (or Bluehole may prefer the term “copycats”).
“Given PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ global success, we want to ensure that we have the operational efficiency that is required to support the game globally,” said Chang Han Kim, chief executive officer of PUBG Corp., in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “This new structure allows us to be nimble as we look towards the expansion of strategic business opportunities that include the game’s potential in the esports sector and the growth of PUBG as a true global IP franchise.”
PUBG Corp. has established an office in the U.S., and it plans to open locations in Europe and Japan. We reached out to Bluehole for comment on why it wanted to create a whole new subsidiary for PUBG, and we’ll update this story if we hear back from the studio.
Bluehole is based in South Korea. It also develops the PC massively multiplayer online role-playing game Tera.