PUBG Creator Brendan Greene Defends Machine Learning Use While Criticizing Generative AI in Gaming

PUBG Creator's Nuanced Approach to AI in Gaming

Brendan Greene, the mastermind behind the battle royale phenomenon PUBG, is taking a carefully calibrated approach to artificial intelligence in his latest venture. Known by his pseudonym PlayerUnknown, Greene has been developing his next project through PlayerUnknown Productions, which will release the survival game Prologue: Go Wayback! into early access on November 20 1

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Source: Eurogamer

The game represents the first installment in an ambitious three-game plan that Greene hopes will ultimately lead to Project Artemis, a world-scale MMO capable of supporting millions of players simultaneously. To achieve this lofty goal, Greene believes machine learning technology is not just helpful but necessary 1

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Machine Learning for Terrain Generation

Prologue: Go Wayback! employs machine learning in a specific and targeted way: generating height maps for terrain creation. The survival game challenges players to navigate from a starting cabin to a weather tower across a nearly 25-square-mile procedurally generated world, with weather and terrain serving as the primary obstacles rather than enemies 1

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Source: XDA-Developers

Greene explained the technical process behind what his team calls "Guided Generation." The machine learning model creates black-and-white images that determine the placement and shape of geographical features like rivers and mountains. This model was trained using open-source data from agencies including ESA and NASA, and crucially, it operates locally on players' PCs without requiring an always-online connection 1

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"What we're using machine learning for in Prologue: Go Wayback! is that it generates the height map of the world," Greene detailed. "We have a river schematic. We started off with just splines in Blender of where rivers might look like it could go. From that black and white image that tells you where the water is with white, it generates a height map for the world or for the terrain from that" 1

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Defending Against AI Backlash

Greene's approach comes at a time when the gaming industry faces significant pushback against AI implementation. However, he draws a clear distinction between his use of machine learning and the generative AI that has sparked community outrage. "We don't use LLMs [large language models] so I'm not super worried [about backlash]," Greene stated, emphasizing that his team's systems are designed "to enable the artists to sculpt the worlds how they want" 2

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Surprisingly, Greene expressed support for the gaming community's resistance to AI. "I've been really heartened to see the community revolt against AI stuff," he said. "It's good to see that gamers go: 'No - if it's not built by artists, I don't want to see it.' So that's been really great to see" 2

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Independence from Krafton's AI Strategy

Greene's position becomes more complex when considering his studio's relationship with Krafton, the South Korean company that published PUBG and recently announced a controversial "AI first" mandate. Krafton remains a minority investor in PlayerUnknown Productions, but Greene maintains his independence from their strategic direction 2

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"As a fully independent studio, our overall goals at PlayerUnknown Productions are not influenced by Krafton's chosen strategy," Greene clarified. "While Krafton remains a minority stakeholder in our studio, their internal operations are separate from ours since 2021" 2

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