PUBG Mobile Game App Surprise Launched In Canada

Gamers in the Great White North got a surprise this week as without warning and with no fanfare, PUBG Mobile landed on the Google Play store in the country. This launch highlights the promise that the developer made to get the game on all major platforms. The game is an officially licensed mobile version and the soft launch is viewed as an early release to allow gamers to grab the game and beat on it for stability before a presumed larger rollout. PUBG did the same thing when it launched in early access form on Steam and stayed there for a long time before hitting an official release.

Canada isn’t the first country to get a PUBG Mobile game, China was the first. The launch in Canada is a big deal because it signals that the developers plan to launch the game in more countries. China is one of the biggest markets for PUBG and when the mobile game launched there alone, it wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility for China to be the only market for the game.

If you are a U.S. gamer frothing to play the mobile version of your favorite shooter, you can change your Google Play region and download the game right now. The folks at PC Gamer spent some time playing the game and say that it runs smooth and looks good, at least on their Galaxy S7 smartphone. However, the publication does note that the touchscreen controls are "awful."

Controls are always the challenge for mobile game developers as the devices don’t have much in the way of options other than forcing players to slide fingers around the screen or tilt the screen for motion controls; neither input method is ideal. The game does feature in-game voice chat, vehicles to use on land and water, and a large map challenging the player to be the last one standing in the massive free-for-all. Cheating has been a massive problem for PUBG, particularly with gamers from China, and the developer has spent huge amounts of time trying to catch and ban cheaters.