PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is set to tip its bloody hat to one of its biggest inspirations, the Japanese dystopian action film Battle Royale. The game’s developer, Bluehole, has since announced a number of impending skins and outfits based on characters from the film. They will be available in special loot crates, with all purchases going towars an upcoming tournament.
Although there have been many books, movies, and games based on the idea of locking a number of people into an expansive arena and charging them with killing one another to be crowned the surviving champion, most can trace their roots back to Battle Royale. The book and follow-up film pitted high school students against one another in a dystopian future of Japan. While Battlegrounds is not quite the same, it certainly owes a lot to Battle Royale‘s popularization of the idea.
To celebrate that, the new outfits will be available in special crates following the next big update for the game. There will be three in total, according to Rock Paper Shotgun, with two regular crates redeemable through “murderpoints” but one other will require a special key, which needs to be purchased. They will cost $2.50 each and all proceeds will go toward the upcoming Gamescom Invitational Battlegrounds tournament, where players will need to be in top form.
Available outfits include Kitano’s tracksuit, the orange top of the Battle Royale propaganda girl, Takako’s yellow tracksuit and a pair of schoolgirl outfits, among others.
Although this news appears to have rubbed a few players the wrong way — specifically because Bluehole previously stated it would not monetize the game until after leaving Early Access — the loot system is described as a test. It also goes to great lengths in its announcement to highlight that all funds will go to providing prizes and paying for the organizing of the Gamescom tournament.
Any additional funds will go to a selection of charities, we are told.
The crates will go live with the next update on August 3 and will be available until August 27, at the completion of the Gamescom event. Other features set to be added in that update include the much-anticipated option for first-person-only servers, the field of view slider and a new rifle, as well as a handful of bug fixes.
Having trouble running PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds yourself? Try out our handy guide to squeeze out the most performance from the Early Access title.
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