'How big can we go?': PUBG creator Brendan Greene on founding a studio to build his Earth-sized digital world

GamesMMOProject Artemis’How big can we go?': PUBG creator Brendan Greene on founding a studio to build his Earth-sized digital worldWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: PlayerUnknown Productions)

A planet seen from space

It’s been a while since PUBG creator Brendan Greene talked about his next project. Our first chat about Artemis, the Earth-sized digital planet he’s building, was at GDCback in early 2023. Since then, Greene’s been pretty quiet about Artemis, but that’s about to change.

Greene’s Amsterdam-based studio,PlayerUnknown Productions, opened up its Discord for the first time today and will be livestreaming a “fireside chat” with Greene and other members of the dev team tomorrow. The chat is scheduled for Friday, September 6, at 10:00 am PDT / 1:00 pm EDT / 19:00 CEST, exclusively on thePlayerUnknown Productions Discord.

Speaking of chats, I finally got another chance to talk to Greene and several members of his team about their studio and the digital world they’re building when I visited the PlayerUnknown Productions office in July. You can read the full story in our magazine: it appears in issue 401 ofPC Gamer Magazine UK, on newsstands next week, and in issue 389 ofPC Gamer Magazine US. Below, you’ll find a few excerpts from the full story, but there’s lots, lots more in the mag.

World-building

Seamlessly zooming in on planets from outer space is nothing new: I’ve been landing on alien worlds in games like No Man’s Sky and Kerbal Space Program for years. The difference here is scale. The world Brendan Greene is showing me—the digital planet he’s building—is the size of an actual planet.

(Image credit: PlayerUnknown Productions)

A planet seen from space

It’s building a holodeck, building a space that you can create whatever experiences you want.Brendan Greene

It’s building a holodeck, building a space that you can create whatever experiences you want.

According to Greene, Artemis will be a massively multiplayer sandbox capable of supporting thousands and eventually millions of players at the same time. To accomplish that ambitious goal, Greene decided he needed to build not only a new game engine but an entirely new company: PlayerUnknown Productions.

A completed Artemis is still a long way off—some of the technology needed to complete Greene’s vision doesn’t even exist yet. But in the years since the studio was formed, it’s already come a long way.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Scaling up

Work on Artemis began while Greene was still with Krafton, publisher of his mega-hit battle royale game, PUBG. He began putting together a team to build a new survival game set on a 100x100 kilometer map, but soon began to envision an even bigger game world.

Brendan Greene(Image credit: PlayerUnknown Productions)

Brendan Greene

“How big can we go?” he asked himself. “It eventually turned into Earth-scale, because it was a nice challenge.”

As his vision got bigger, Greene decided to leave Krafton and form his own company. “What we’re doing is just super risky, right? And eventually I decided it’s better just to do it myself.

“It was a lot harder than I thought,” he adds with a laugh.

“Excitement and terror”

“For me, it’s like we’re trying to build a next generation game engine, simply put,” Greene says. “And it’s not just a game engine, but it’s a world engine, or a digital place engine. But really, it’s building a holodeck, building a space that you can create whatever experiences you want.”

I ask how people react when he first pitches his vision to them, and he tells me what happened recently while describing the idea of a planet-sized game world that can support a million players to a prospective new hire. “She was just staring with a mixture of excitement and terror. Pure terror in her eyes, like… ‘You want to do what now?'”

Much More in the Mag(Image credit: Future)To read the entire story (and much more!) consider a print or digital mag subscription.-UK edition(Issue 401)-US edition(Issue 389)

Much More in the Mag

(Image credit: Future)To read the entire story (and much more!) consider a print or digital mag subscription.-UK edition(Issue 401)-US edition(Issue 389)

(Image credit: Future)

PC Gamer UK Issue 401

To read the entire story (and much more!) consider a print or digital mag subscription.

-UK edition(Issue 401)-US edition(Issue 389)

Greene’s head of studio, Kim Nordstrom, formerly chief strategy officer at Paradox Interactive, uses a similar phrase to describe his first impressions of the project. “I had the same reaction like everyone else. First of all, it’s super abstract, and so big, and super risky, and super expensive,” Nordstrom says. “I always describe it as exciting and terrifying at the same time. It really is that mixture. ‘You want to do what? But that’s crazy!’ And then 30 seconds later you go, ‘Oh, if we can do that… holy f**k, that’d be amazing.'”

For now, more specific details about the game engine and Earth-sized planet PlayerUnknown Productions is building are being kept under wraps. The website mentions a tech demo is planned to let players get their first look at an early version of Artemis, though a release date for that demo hasn’t yet been announced or even hinted at yet. I’m curious to see what players make of it: the tech is impressive, but as we saw most recently in Starfield, generating a beautiful planet is just one part of the challenge. Turning that planet into an interesting and compelling place players will want to spend their time is another, potentially even tougher endeavor.

“What we’re doing is new, and we may run into roadblocks along the way that don’t allow us to go as big or as quick [as we’d like],” says Greene, adding: “This is going to be a bumpy road. But if you come along with us for the journey, we’ll have highs, we’ll have lows, but it’ll be a great journey and we’ll have something very special at the end.”

More about mmoWorld of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enoughWorld of Warcraft’s competitive dungeon mode is strugglingLatestWatching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delightSee more latest►

More about mmoWorld of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enoughWorld of Warcraft’s competitive dungeon mode is struggling

More about mmo

World of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enoughWorld of Warcraft’s competitive dungeon mode is struggling

Image for World of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enough

World of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enough

World of Warcraft Mythic Plus screenshot

World of Warcraft’s competitive dungeon mode is struggling

LatestWatching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delightSee more latest►

Latest

Watching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delight

null

Watching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delight

See more latest►

Most Popular

This bizarre roguelike has a new take on the Vampire Survivors formula: letting you build your own custom weapons out of brains, eyeballs, and chimpanzee spines

18 games the PC Gamer team can’t wait to play in 2025

The Witcher 3’s now 2-year-old bonus quest is our first taste of the ‘vibe’ CD Projekt is going for in The Witcher 4

2024 was the year updates for old games beat out all the new ones for me

Train like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

‘It’s simply impossible to make a difficulty level that’s just right for all players’: How Final Fantasy 14’s lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids

Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Call of Duty’s $28 Squid Game skins are the perfect crossover for our capitalist dystopia, and Activision knows exactly what it’s doing

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

World-building#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Scaling up#

“Excitement and terror”#

World-building

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Scaling up

“Excitement and terror”