It’s almost inevitable: once a multiplayer game’s been out for some time, veteran players tend to pull ahead to a point where newer players just can’t keep up. The situation is the same for PUBG, which has now developed a player base so proficient that new joiners are simply being flattened before they can improve.
“We’ve seen the general skill level of our players grow significantly over the last three years”, PUBG Corp explained in a blog post today. “We’re seeing more often that many newer players are being eliminated early with no kills – and oftentimes with no damage dealt.”
It’s a serious problem for developers who want to keep their live service games populated, as a skill gap can alienate new players who are needed to refresh the pool. And so, to solve the skill gap issue, PUBG is adding bots to its public matches on console.
“You’ve been telling us for a while that the widening skill gap is creating a more and more challenging environment for some of our players and we’re now ready to talk about our plan to help this,” PUBG Corp explained. “In an effort to provide more ways for players to hone their skills and be able to fully enjoy what PUBG has to offer, we’ve decided to introduce bots with Update 7.1.”