PUBG Lite, the free-to-play version of the battle royale game, is ending on April 29. In an announcement on the website, parent company Krafton said that PUBG Lite will stop being available to players at the end of April, shortening the list of the versions of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds games. Technically, the “Lite” version of PUBG was meant for underpowered machines, such as PCs with 4GB of RAM. The company has not said why they are pulling the plug on PUBG Lite but what we can assume is the downtick in the adoption is what led to this decision.
For the unversed, PUBG Lite is not PUBG Mobile Lite. Krafton launched PUBG Lite in beta back in 2019 starting with Thailand. Then, the game moved to Europe in October of the same year. However, the makers did not expand the game to more markets. Recently, the company announced that PUBG Lite was going to be a free-to-play game, which meant the in-game currency L-Coin was dropped to increase user base. The last update on the PUBG Lite arrived on March 30, which means even though the game will be playable until April 29, there will be no updates to the game.
Krafton is, however, giving player support until May 29 but that would be the final nail in the coffin. Here is the full statement from Krafton on shutting down PUBG Lite:
We are deeply grateful for the passion and support from the astounding number of PUBG LITE fans that have been with us. During the strenuous times of the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope that PUBG LITE was able to provide our fans a fun way to stay safe.
Unfortunately, we have made the difficult decision to close service after much deliberation and the time has come for our journey to end. We regretfully inform you that service of PUBG LITE is scheduled to end on April 29th, 2021 (UTC).
Krafton also said that the in-game credits will continue to work as normal, including the L-Coin that you may have left until the game officially ends on April 29. And even though the game will take its last breath on April 29, the Facebook page of PUBG Lite will continue to exist “until further notice.” Krafton has not immediately explained why the Facebook page will be open even though all other entities are coming to end. To make something of it, the company said the users should “look forward to our [company’s] future endeavours.” This may be a hint that there is a new game that will replace PUBG Lite.
