PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' 3D replay technology is paving the way for data capture in future video games

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PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds recently introduced new 3D replay tools in its PC version, allowing players to view the recording from any perspective they wish. This technology isn’t just standard video capture, though. It’s a data capture system developed by South Korean company Minkonet (via Engadget).

Within replay mode, players are free to scan a 1-kilometer radius of their character. With tons of data points collected, a slice of the battlefield is recreated for players to experience in a whole new way. According to Minkonet’s COO and CFO Gilbert Kim, other video game companies have been calling them non-stop since PUBG’s announcement of its repay feature.

“We’ve been getting a lot of calls and a lot of interest,” he said. “Getting in new games is really competitive, and every feature counts, but we see data capture and replay technology is probably going to be mainstream in the next few years. … I think this is going to unleash new content that’s never been seen before in games, and it’s just starting. It’s just starting right now.”

The idea of data capture was built into PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds from the beginning by PUBG creator Brendan Greene and CEO Chang Han Kim. Passing over 3 million concurrent players on Steam, it’s one of the most popular games out there, and even more people enjoy livestreams of it.

“One of their first visions was to have PUBG as not just a great game to play, but a great game to watch,” Kim said. “So they were already from the very beginning focused on having PUBG as a great live streaming game; esports was also one of their sort of long-term visions.”

Not only does this technology let players relive the experience, but it is also a useful tool in finding cheaters.

“One of the biggest sort of issues right now in gaming is cheating, hacking,” Kim said. “There’s a core, a few people who are doing it to a lot of people. But I think with our 3D replay technology we can sort of provide an anti-cheat — we can’t prevent a hack completely. But because of what we do with the 3D death cam, people sometimes when they play, they want to know how they died, and sometimes our technology can find out how you died. Is there is something a little bit suspicious, maybe something we should be looking at?”

A short video of the replay technology found in PUBG can be seen below.

https://youtu.be/vsSm5eqgnyM

More about the topics: Minkonet, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, PUBG