E3 2017: Playerunknown's Battlegrounds Adding Player-Controlled Zombies

Developer Bluehole has talked a lot this week about its plans for its popular multiplayer game, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. Now we know what might be its most ambitious plan for the game: it's currently working on a zombies mode--and players will control the zombies.

On Twitter, the developer teased the new mode with a short trailer, which you can see below. From this short look, it seems like it'll be a pretty great addition to the game. Battlegrounds' high-stakes, slower-paced gameplay make it perfect for adding hordes of zombies and forcing players to work together to survive.

As Bluehole's community manager announced on Twitter, the zombies will be player-controlled. Since Battlegrounds' matches contain 100 players, this makes gameplay sense. I always loved Halo's Infection, and I imagine that Battlegrounds' mode will play somewhat similarly.

From this first glimpse, this is a great way for the game to differentiate itself from other survival zombies games, most notably DayZ and H1Z1. Battlegrounds already wears its influence from those games on its sleeves, so it'll be interesting to see how it builds on those earlier games.

The mode's still a ways away from release, however, as Bluehole remains focused on improving optimization first and foremost. Moreover, this will not affect the main game, but rather it'll be an additional mode. The developer hasn't stated a release date yet.

In the meantime, Battlegrounds has some other big changes coming up. It's finally getting a climbing and vaulting mechanic, along with a replay system. In addition, it was announced that it's coming to Xbox One with enhancements on Xbox One X.