In December, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds partnered with Seoul-based Minkonet to introduce a new 3D replay feature.
For those unfamiliar with PUBG, it follows a similar structure to H1Z1 or Fortnite Battle Royale, with a hundred players dropped into a large map with nothing but their own ability to loot gear and ultimately survive. The game is a hit, with a reported 3 million concurrent players in December.
While the launch of 3D replay might sound minute, it’s picked up a lot of traction. The feature lets players capture video after they’ve died, changing the speed of the video as well as the camera angle. Since launching Minkonet’s tech, the feature has been used more than nine million times each day, with an average of five minutes of replay viewing per game session.
PlayerUnknown says between 70 and 80 percent of players use the Death Cam feature.
In an interview with Engadget, Minkonet COO and CFO Chief Gilbert Kim explained that the 3D replay tech addresses four issues for PUBG and gaming in general: cheating, learning, video editing and esports. The tech allows players to learn how they died and what other players do to succeed, while simultaneously giving players the chance to create stunning, cinematic highlights and eventually let esports organizations do the same.
Minkonet is working on building out an AI-powered version of the technology, automating the process of creating cinematic highlight reels, as well as an anti-cheating AI algorithm.
While PUBG is Minkonet’s first big client, it would be easy to see this technology expanding to other popular titles. For now, 3D replay is only available on the PC version of PUBG.