Grand Theft Auto Online Releases a PUBG-Style Battle Royale Mode

The Battle Royale craze spreads to GTA with Motor Wars

News by Matt Kim, News Editor

Updated on 29 August 2017

With over 8 million sales, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is easily one of the most successful games of the year. Which means that there will now be games looking to capitalize on the PUBG's success. The first challenge comes from another massively successful online game, Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar unveiled a new mode called Motor Wars, and the premise and rules sound awfully familiar.

"Blending the adrenaline rush of Drop Zone with the claustrophobic tension of a match of Penned In, this brutal Adversary Mode is a deadly scavenger hunt where second place is not an option. Up to four teams parachute into a periodically shrinking kill box strewn with a lethal assortment of guns, explosives and Weaponized Vehicles. Work together, find a vehicle, and fight opposing teams and the shrinking map to survive and win."

For those of you who haven't yet partaken in the crucible of PUBG, players are dropped from an airplane onto a hostile island with a periodically shrinking kill box. Players then have to scavenge for weapons, explosives, and vehicles and survive to be the last player standing. So this is pretty much Grand Theft Auto Online's variation of that formula.

To be fair, PUBG is also heavily influenced by the core concept behind the Japanese novel/manga/film Battle Royale and it's a concept that's been attempted before, though not at the level of PUBG's success. We've already predicted that the Battle Royale genre would be the next big thing in gaming, so what better than having one of the biggest online games trying its hand at the concept?

Grand Theft Auto Online is a massive success, and thanks to the sandbox nature of GTA Online, a battle royale mode for the game isn't too difficult to imagine. What remains to be seen is whether or not the new mode will make GTA Online a PUBG competitor, or simply become another fun addition to GTA Online's expanding roster of online multiplayer modes.

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Matt Kim

News Editor

Matt Kim is a former freelance writer who's covered video games and digital media. He likes video games as spectacle and is easily distracted by bright lights or clever bits of dialogue. He also once wrote about personal finance, but that's neither here nor there.