PUBG creator Brendan Greene swears his infinite, mega-ambitious digital universe isn't like all the others: 'I want to build a metaverse because I don't think anyone else is'

GamesProject ArtemisPUBG creator Brendan Greene swears his infinite, mega-ambitious digital universe isn’t like all the others: ‘I want to build a metaverse because I don’t think anyone else is’When 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)

Wilderness with trees

PUBG’s creator, Brendan Greene, has been tinkering away at his next next project for a while now with his homegrown studio,PlayerUnknown Productions. Called Project Artemis for the time being, it’s a procedurally generated Earth-sized world simulation… thingy.

If it sounds like I’m being vague, it’s because Greene’s not keen on putting it into defined boxes, either, as he told our ownChristopher Livingston in March last year: “I don’t want to classify it as a game … I’m sure there will be gameplay elements. And we do have plans for a light survival exploration-type, life civilization game mode type thing—what else would you do with a massive world?”

Arecent interview with IGNdoesn’t bring things into any kind of sharper focus, though the word “metaverse” has entered the arena: “I hesitate to talk about this, because it’s just such a dirty word, but I want to build a metaverse because I don’t think anyone else is. I think everyone’s building IP bubbles that might talk to each other at some stage in the future, maybe if we’re lucky, but it’s not the metaverse.”

I mean, hey, I actually don’t disagree with him there—the concept of a metaverse has always seemed like a pie-in-the-sky bottle of snake oil to sell youNFTsor ‘digital real estate’—but he’s invoking the accursed tongue, so he needs to explain what it means to him. And to his credit, he does try:

“See, the Metaverse is a 3D internet. You should be able to create your own worlds and just have them all operating on the same protocol, like HTTP. So a world is a page, and that’s what I’m trying to do with Artemis.”

Still, Greene & Co. aren’t just jumping in with two legs—Artemis is the third in a trio of projects, the first of which, dubbed Prologue, is testing the AI-assisted tech in a more controlled fashion. Greene describes it as a survival game with “a new terrain every time you press play”.

“The seed system gives us, I think 4.2 billion possible maps, but maybe millions of those would be interesting, I’m not sure yet … But this kind of tech is really cool because we’re seeing it shaped day to day with the artists. They’re going, ‘Let’s try this, let’s update the masks we use for the river to this so we generate that slightly differently.’ And they’re learning how to use this tech along with us, which is just great to see.”

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Project Two sounds like another stress-test wrapped up in a game: “You’ll be controlling an army, basically” is all he gives IGN’s Rebekah Valentine, but it more-or-less sounds like an earth-sized RTS. Which I guess is sensible. Boiled down, the idea of a metaverse is just a massive digital world with a lot of people in it and very little definition. So hammering out the ‘big world’ and ‘many people’ things separately feels likeaway to go about it.

“The metaverse has to have millions of people,” Greene concurs, “and server client-side, you’ll never get that. You’ll maybe get a few thousand, maybe 10,000 if you’re lucky, but it’s attacking the problem at the wrong end, which is to solve the simulation locally, which we’ve done with Preface and then you can scale to hundreds of thousands, millions of people, hopefully.”

He then goes on to describe the idea of people being able to create their own worlds in Artemis, which he dubs “3D webpages”, mod them, and share them with other people. “This is probably going to be empty for the first few years, but then eventually you’ll start to see the possibility of what you can do with this kind of world generator that it’s like a multiverse of worlds.”

It’s all sounding rather ambitious, and I wish Greene the best, but my slant on this whole metaverse nonsense is that it’s only really providing experiences that already exist in games focused on delivering thatthing.There is no such thing as an everything game that does anything you could want, because a game is created out of rules.

Besides, digital online spaces were nailed in Second Life and, later, the MMORPG with its housing systems andbonkers architects. Procedurally-generated megaworlds have been around for a while, and even if new tech can make them bigger and bigger, past a certain scale? My brain just starts to tune out. You’ve seen one chunk, you’ve seen them all. Modding and sharing games and worlds is already happening a-plenty in Fortnite and Roblox.

And if you want to build on this kind of scale, well, No Man’s Sky happens. EvenLight No Fire’sgot me kinda nervous, despite the fact that its developer has made that exact mistake before and (hopefully) learned from it. It’s not the only auteur-headed studio angling for these big pitches right now, and it’s not even a new phenomenon—ol’ Molyneux built a career on the stuff, andStar Citizenhas been in Alpha for 11 years.

Where I’m sat, Artemis needs to convince its players that AI tech has really levelled up what procedural generation can do. Otherwise, I fear it’ll roll out an inch-deep ocean, criticised in the same way these megaprojects have been criticised before. I dearly hope history isn’t about to repeat itself.

More about gamesWorld of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enoughThe Sims begins its 25th anniversary celebration next week with a Behind The Sims episode of news and announcementsLatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11See more latest►

More about games

World of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enoughThe Sims begins its 25th anniversary celebration next week with a Behind The Sims episode of news and announcements

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

The Sims 4 - a woman with red hair and a purple top exclaims with excitement

The Sims begins its 25th anniversary celebration next week with a Behind The Sims episode of news and announcements

LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11See more latest►

Latest

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

Wordle answers

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

See more latest►

Most PopularPiranha Games will lay off employees after Mechwarrior 5: Clans ‘performed below projections’Marvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod sceneSorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our faultTeam Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40KIs the new RTX 5070 really as fast as Nvidia’s previous flagship RTX 4090 GPU? Turns out the answer is yes. Kinda.Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anythingIf you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 offAMD is now reportedly making all-American Ryzen 9000 CPU dies at TSMC’s Arizona fabI tried a sim racing rig that generates ‘wind’ at CES 2025 and it’s claimed to help keep VR nausea at bayFinal Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their altsTikTok’s time in the US may be ticking to a close as it makes a last stand in the Supreme Court, though Trump now says he ‘opposes banning’ it

Most Popular

Piranha Games will lay off employees after Mechwarrior 5: Clans ‘performed below projections’

Marvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene

Sorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our fault

Team Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40K

Is the new RTX 5070 really as fast as Nvidia’s previous flagship RTX 4090 GPU? Turns out the answer is yes. Kinda.

Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anything

If you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 off

AMD is now reportedly making all-American Ryzen 9000 CPU dies at TSMC’s Arizona fab

I tried a sim racing rig that generates ‘wind’ at CES 2025 and it’s claimed to help keep VR nausea at bay

Final Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their alts

TikTok’s time in the US may be ticking to a close as it makes a last stand in the Supreme Court, though Trump now says he ‘opposes banning’ it

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! review2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review3WD 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

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

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

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals