Battle royale trailblazer PUBG is getting a clan system, publisher Krafton has announced. The new system will let players create and join their friends in groups of up to 100 players, unlocking a bunch of new social and progression systems.
"Players with Battlegrounds Plus accounts can create clans by clicking the clan button located in the lobby" Krafton stated in a press release. "Once the clan is created, various features such as clan search, chat, and notifications are provided." Krafton also explains that they are administered by a "clan master" and a "manager", although I'm wondering if the latter is supposed to be plural, as having just two people overseeing a potential group of 100 doesn't seem like a lot.
Socialising with likeminded players isn't the only benefit to being in a PUBG clan. Clans have their own progression system, with clans ranked from level 1 to 20, represented by an unlockable clan tag that upgrades over time. Perhaps most importantly, players who fight with their clan members receive a double XP bonus and a 30% BP bonus for doing so.
"We have introduced the clan system starting with the 23.2 test server update to foster a sense of belonging and ultimately heightening player satisfaction," said Taeseok Jang, PUBG's executive producer." Frankly, I think what PUBG needs to foster a greater sense of belonging is a personality rather than a clan system, but it's possible I'm in the minority on that one. As Fraser reported only yesterday, the game's inherent blandness compared to more vivacious battle royale games like Fortnite and Apex hasn't stopped it from being enduringly popular. The game recently reached "record quarterly sales" of $407.8 million, with Krafton boasting about the game's "all-time high in in-game sales".
That being said, PUBG's population count hasn't budged much from its 4-500,000 player average, which perhaps reflects the game's lack of eye-catching new features to draw in new players. I doubt that this new clan system will change that much, but I guess we'll find out when the system is rolled out across the game wholesale.
