Brendan Greene stepping away from PUBG to head up new R&D division

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) lead designer and director Brendan Greene is leaving the development trenches to lead a new division within developer-publisher PUBG Corp. 

Greene spent the past five years honing the battle royale concept, initially creating mods for other titles like DayZ and Arma II before creating and launching PUBG with the help of South Korean studio Bluehole. 

In an open letter posted on Twitter, the designer said he'll be taking charge of PUBG Corp's new Special Projects division, and will no longer be involved in the day-to-day development of PUBG. 

"While I'll remain as a consulting creative director on PUBG, development all be led by (current art director) Taeseok Jang and the fantastic team I have had the honor of working with over the past three years. They have some great things planned for this year, and I can't wait to share more with you soon," he wrote.

"Going forward I'll be based in Amsterdam, rather than Seoul, and focused on building out an entirely new division to focus on research and game development."

Greene explained Special Projects will be driven by a desire to build online experiences and spaces that connect people "in ways I only dreamed of when I first sat in front of a computer."

"We are tasked with exploring, experimenting, and creating new technologies, tools, pipelines, and gameplay," he added. "Together, with a team of game developers and researchers, we will explore new possibilities of intersection and connection within the game space."