For a man with his name on the box of the fifth best-selling game of all time, Brendan 'PlayerUnknown' Greene is shockingly down to earth. His golden child, pioneering battle royale PUBG, has sold 75 million copies and remains a multi-billion dollar global phenomenon seven years after launch. But over dinner – at a bar a stone's throw from his Amsterdam studio – Greene jovially shares holiday snaps and cheap wine hacks, and admits to using his real name to go incognito at massive conferences while his game reshaped the industry.
That relaxed persona comes as a surprise. In one of Greene's more recent public appearances, a video announcing his departure from PUBG Studios and future plans, his long beard and sagacious tone presented him as more of a classical philosopher than modern game dev. Speaking softly in a black and white video, he outlined his new goal – a huge, planet-sized open world filled with the creative efforts of thousands of players sculpting their own environment. There was a touch of the auteur, a sense of a creator just a little lost in their own sauce, but at the bar, Greene admits it was a bit of an act. The monochrome, studio-style lighting belied the fact it was shot in his home, and his long beard was not so much a signifier of newfound wisdom as part of a bet to finally get this new project out in the open. It was shaved off the following day.
