At the edge of Gamescom, the battle royale shooter H1Z1 King of the Kill has sought and found a comparison with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).
It’s a strange situation to be the “other game” next to PUBG. While H1Z1 itself has had an amazing career and has transformed from “actually failed” to “incredibly successful”, PUBG is the rocket that has soared in the battle royale genre and reaches dizzying heights.
H1Z1 glad about PUBG’s success: Good for the genre
Is H1Z1 now sinking in shame for being overtaken so hard? Of course not.
In a conversation with PcGamesN, they express their closeness to PUBG and speak about how happy they are that the competitor is so successful. This brings a huge amount of new players into the battle royale genre. That is fantastic for the genre.
At H1Z1, they believe: “It’s great that we can now grow together and define and reinvent the battle royale genre together.”
H1Z1 also sees reasons to play both. They consider themselves more action-packed and faster. H1Z1 points to the big combat update in September, which they say is the biggest they have ever done.
PUBG vs. H1Z1 – Overtaken
Mein MMO states: The concept of battle royale matches our zeitgeist: Anything can happen every second, it’s always exciting. Former SOE head John Smedley recognized the potential of this game concept back in January 2015 and even hired PlayerUnknown to develop such a mode for his zombie MMO.
However, H1Z1 has not been able to fully exploit its potential in the last one and a half years.
PUBG is successful precisely because the slow development pace and the mistakes of H1Z1: King of the Kill left a lot of room to score there. A PS4 and Xbox One version of H1Z1 King of the Kill was actually supposed to be on shelves since summer 2016. To this day, there’s been no news about it.
Although H1Z1 had enormous success at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, it now threatens to fade in PUBG’s shadow.
H1Z1 had a huge lead over PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – which has now been lost
There is certainly enough space in the genre for more than one battle royale shooter, but whether the “other” will really remain H1Z1 King of the Kill is to be seen.
H1Z1 has had a problem for years: They rely on Twitch streams and large events on TV. Instead, many players wish for a higher priority on the actual game.
Recent months haven’t been particularly glorious for H1Z1, although there are now signs that this could change. We will report our impressions of H1Z1 at Gamescom in the coming days.
We have dealt with the problems and the success of H1Z1 King of the Kill here:
H1Z1 King of the Kill: Like McDonald’s – Bad Reviews, Lots of Success
