The battle royale genre is the biggest thing in gaming since double-jumping, and the gold rush is well and truly on. Early plaudits must surely go to Chinese firm NetEase who - having seen hated rival Tencent gobble up the exclusive rights to develop PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds for mobile - have somehow managed to smash out three new cellphone titles already. As developers scramble to cram battle royale modes into their existing games, however, we're also seeing a ton of new pretenders taking shape on the horizon. Some of them even look quite interesting. Here's a look at what to expect.
1. The Darwin Project
Developed by Montreal-based Scavengers, The Darwin Project clings onto the battle royale genre's core last-player-standing concept, but augments it with some ideas inspired by, of all things, reality TV. One player gets to be Show Director - part Dungeon Master and part streamer/shoutcaster - tweaking the environment and generally making things more interesting for the players duking it out for survival and people watching the action on Mixer, the game's exclusive stream partner. Set in an icy, mountainous battle arena with visuals and interface elements that recall Fortnite and Overwatch, this definitely has potential, although it sounds like a lot will depend on players embracing the Show Director role.
2. Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale
An alien race has kidnapped 100 people and dropped them into a custom-built killbox where they must fight for survival in familiar fashion, looting and shooting until the play area is condensed to a tiny circle of certain death. It's nice to see a battle royale game with a story behind it - even if we're pretty sure it's the story from Predators - and as you can see from the video embed above, the game is already in alpha and developer Define Human Studios has been courting top PUBG streamers like Shroud and Grimmz to check it out. Define Human promises "skill-driven progression" and fewer cheaters than its competitors in this first-person-only take on the genre, so it might be worth a look.
3. SOS
SOS has a few things in common with PUBG, but whereas a lot of games in the battle royale genre stick slavishly to Brendan Greene's formula and risk only small tweaks, Outpost Games' title very much walks to its own beat. The idea is that you're one of 16 people taking part in a fictional reality TV show called SOS; between you someone must retrieve a relic, and only three of you can then make it out on the chopper. There's no encroaching circle of death, either. What really sets SOS apart, however, is its focus on voice communications and streaming. The idea here isn't that you win just by surviving - you also need to entertain, with your gameplay broadcast on Twitch and the number of viewers you accrue contributing to your success or failure. The developer hopes contestants will become flamboyant role-players, using wit, bravado and even a bit of social engineering to come out on top. It reminds us of the good old early days of DayZ, where the stories players emerged with were just as often about a gunfight that didn't happen as one that did. Color us interested.
4. Survival Games
Hmm. This one reminds us of something. A game of some sort. Can't put our finger on it. Minceraft? Something like that? Ah well. Survival Games is a 64-player battle royale shooter with elements of... procedurally generated Lego-style crafting titles... about it. One big point of differentiation here is dynamic environments. No more waiting months for Brendan and the boys to get the desert map ready for you - every time you load up Survival Games you'll be treading virgin turf - while environments appear to be vaguely destructible and there's a hunt-and-craft aspect as well. You can even lay down bear-traps to snap at your opponents' heels. Minecraft! That's the one. Whatever happened to that, eh?
5. Europa
Not content with bagging the exclusive rights to PUBG on mobile, Tencent Games is already banging out a high-end PC battle royale game, and the in-game footage from the first trailer is pretty tantalizing. The big difference here is destructible environments - you can ram Humvees through walls to crush unsuspecting opponents, drop pipes on players in a dockyard loading area, and generally punch holes through the scenery wherever you please. There are plenty of vehicles on display too, including speedboats. The only catch is that we have no idea if Europa will be released outside China - there's currently no English-language Steam page, and if Tencent succeeds in its attempts to acquire Bluehole, then it may prefer to let the original PUBG be the PUBG everywhere else.