PUBG Announces Global Partner Teams, Promises MTX Integration For Its Teams
Krafton, publisher of the Battle Royale franchise PlayerUnknown: Battlegrounds (PUBG), has announced its eight partners for its global partnership program going into 2023, with well-known esports organisations such as FaZe Clan, Gen.G, and Na’Vi among them. The so-called “Global Partner Team Program” is set up to provide stability to esports organisations, allowing them to participate in the PUBG Global Series as well as provide a much-desired direct revenue stream in the form of MTX integrations.
Click to enlargeKrafton went into detail about its selection process, explaining that partners were chosen based on a formula of their displayed and anticipated future level of commitment to PUBG as an esport, their fanbase, and their competitive history with the game. The full list of teams reads as follows:
- Four Angry Men
- 17 Gaming
- FaZe Clan
- Gen.G
- Natus Vincere
- Petrichor Road
- Soniqs
- Twisted Minds
Click to enlargeTeam Revenue stream secured?
Amid an ongoing discussion of the rocky paths to sustainability in esports especially among endemic esports organisations, Krafton has thrown a bone to its teams, providing immediate financial incentives to its partner teams via microtransaction-based integration of team skins and items from which the teams will receive a cut.
Esports insiders and stakeholders had forecast a rough patch for esports in the coming months due to dried-up sponsorship dollars during the projected global recession. Across esports, an increasing number of sponsors have halted their involvement in esports. Moreover, other major revenue streams such as the selling of exclusive broadcasting rights deals for franchised leagues such as the Activision Blizzard-owned Overwatch and Call Of Duty League by streaming platforms such as Twitch or YouTube Gaming also appear to no longer provide a payout.
Various companies in the industry from media to publishers and also esports teams have announced downsizing efforts for their esports departments in the last couple of weeks in reaction to these new realities.
Voices from inside the industry such as Gen.G’s CEO Arnold Hur had asked for more risk-taking and more collaboration between publishers and teams, naming team-based MTX integrations into esports titles as one solution. “If there’s one thing I wish esports fans would push for, it’s team MTX,” he wrote on Twitter.
PUBG Esports Roadmap 2023
Previously, Krafton had also announced its plans for the 2023 PUBG esports season, outlining a tournament circuit spanning from March to December 2023 after which it will culminate in the PUBG Global Championship. Moreover, for the first time since the start of the global pandemic, PUBG is bringing offline events back.
The circuit will host the GPTs as well as teams from the respective regional qualifiers and will pair them against each other during the two events leading up to the championship.
Furthermore, Krafton had announced their plan for an esports Arena in South Korea which is set to launch in the first half of 2024.
