October 17 PUBG Corp has announced that 50% of the PGC skins will be shared out among participating teams.
PUBG Esports teams competing in the Global Championship next month will not have team-branded in-game skins. In an email seen by The Loadout, PUBG Corp confirms that the skins, which were promised to teams earlier this year, will not be made due to development problems, and one player claims that this decision will lead to more teams leaving the scene.
The email was sent out to the teams this morning, informing them of the situation ahead of PUBG Esports’ official statement, which you can now find here. “Due to challenges and concerns from PDU and Seoul HQ, we are unable to create the promised team items,” the email reads. “This is mostly due to the development process and the inability to to ensure a high enough quality of skin to represent you organisation in PUBG.”
Instead the skins, which would have seen 25% of revenue generated go back to the organisations, will be replaced by 12 generic PGC skins. For every item sold, 50% of the revenue will be shared among participating teams and another 25% will go towards the November tournament’s prize pool according to the official statement. PUBG Corp is also adding a Pick ‘Em event, with the remaining 25% of the revenue dished out to the teams. The amount received by each organisation depends on how many votes they get in the event.
But after growing concern from teams on social media, one professional player tells The Loadout that this could signal the end of PUBG in Northern America for some time. “The only reason organisations have stuck this long is because of the promised in-game skin exposure and revenue for making PUBG Global Championship, and they went back on that promise,” he says. “2020 PUBG is going to be pretty org-less while they figure it out.”
Concerns among players and organisations have continued to rise following a worrying trend of organisations leaving PUBG Esports. Some of the game’s biggest teams, such as Cloud9, OpTic, NRG, Team Vitality, and more, left the PUBG scene, citing concerns over its future. Earlier this week, Spacestation Gaming also confirmed that it would be dropping its roster and relinquishing its spot in the National PUBG League.
Another PUBG analyst tells The Loadout: “The issue that arises with this is that PUBG is going backwards when all the feedback and suggestions we’ve given them is supposed to push it forward. It honestly feels like they want the PUBG Esports scene to die out.
“They’re literally doing the opposite to what they should be to grow a healthy esports environment with PUBG.
“Everyone in the scene is now worried it’s going to crumble after PGC because major organisations will leave. It’s looking very dire for the whole PUBG esports scene.”
PUBG Corp has been contacted for comment.
