There are a few different versions of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds — the game that popularized the battle royale genre and inspired a legion of competitors — which you can play on everything from your underpowered phone to your high-end gaming rig. At the end of April, however, the list will be one entry shorter: PUBG Lite, the free-to-play version of the ultimate life and death fight specced for lower-end machines, is going dark on April 29th. New downloads were shut down on March 30th.
In its note to fans, Krafton, the game’s publisher, didn’t give a reason for the impending closure. Here’s what it said in full:
We are deeply grateful for the passion and support from the astounding number of PUBG LITE fans that have been with us. During the strenuous times of the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope that PUBG LITE was able to provide our fans a fun way to stay safe.
Unfortunately, we have made the difficult decision to close service after much deliberation and the time has come for our journey to end. We regretfully inform you that service of PUBG LITE is scheduled to end on April 29th, 2021 (UTC).
News of the shutdown came after the publisher’s announcement last November that PUBG Lite was going fully free-to-play, after ditching its in-game currency system. The game was launched in beta in January 2019 in Thailand, and it moved to Europe in October of that same year. Goodnight, sweet prince. Goodnight, sweet ultimate life and death fight.
