Custom matches for PUBG have been a requesteD feature for quite some time now, so when fans heard that PUBG Corp. would be bringing the functionality via a patch for the test servers, there was quite a bit of excitement around the new possibilities. Unfortunately, the excitement was quickly halted when Brendan Greene, the creator revealed that custom matches would be hidden behind a paywall. During an open-invitational in Berlin, Greene justified the move, saying custom matches are actually a form of light modding…
“For me it is about building a platform for game modes. That’s what custom mode is there to do – it’s like modding lite. We really want to give and empower the players to create new modes, as well providing our own presets for people to experiment with.
I was a modder for many years, and I didn’t expect ARMA to provide me with free servers to mod on, and it’s the same with this. We can’t provide people with free servers. There has to be a way to pay for servers through some sort of wall – either points, BP or money. We just can’t provide free servers for everyone, it’s just not a sustainable business model. I still pay for ARMA 3 servers to this day, because that’s just how the world works.”
Custom servers are actually quite limited in scope (you can check them out on the test servers currently) essentially allowing players to select from 4 modes and add a couple of rules onto that. Is that worth paying for? I would disagree.