PUBG, the game that brought the battle royale genre to the spotlight two years ago will soon use Microsoft Azure for its multiplayer infrastructure. The transition will affect PUBG on PC and consoles, as well as PUBG mobile on iOS and Android.
Krafton, the collective of independent game development teams behind PUBG announced that this deal with Microsoft Azure will take privacy and data security into account. “Azure powers some of the biggest multiplayer games, featuring state-of-the-art security and the most comprehensive set of compliance offerings of any cloud service provider. The collaboration will ensure that privacy rights are respected and relevant software will be in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations,”
PUBG has an interesting history with Microsoft, with the Redmond giant bringing it first to Xbox consoles with a timed-exclusivity deal that ended last year. PUBG first exploded on PC where it sold over 70 million copies, but the mobile user base is also massive with over 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store. Fortnite eventually became the king of the battle royale genre thanks to its free-to-play model, though developer Epic Games has since started a public feud with Apple that led to Fortnite being removed from the iOS App Store, although a workaround is coming.
In addition to PUBG, Microsoft’s own Minecraft game also made the transition to Azure this year. Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world, and it will be interesting to see if other big games continue to adopt Microsoft Azure for their multiplayer infrastructure.
