Brendan Greene, the creator behind PUBG: Battlegrounds (also known as PlayerUnknown), spent the past few years working on ambitious new survival game Prologue: Go Wayback!. But now, that project is taking a dramatic turn. The development team at PlayerUnknown Productions has announced the game will switch to a free-to-play model, while offering full refunds to everyone who already purchased it. The studio has also confirmed layoffs as it looks to reshape its future direction.
From PUBG Creator to a New Project That Failed to Take Off
Prologue: Go Wayback! initially launched with extreme survival gameplay and AI-generated map tech, aiming to create an infinitely scalable open-world experience. Given Greene’s reputation from PUBG, the game attracted attention at reveal. But after launch, player numbers and market reception never met expectations. Steam reviews were decent but the game clearly lacked sustained interest, ultimately forcing the team to rethink its entire business model.
Going Free Plus Full Refunds Says It All
Free-to-play transitions happen often in gaming, but free-to-play plus full refunds to existing buyers is rarer. This signals the dev team isn’t just trying to attract more players — they are fundamentally restarting the product’s positioning. Offering refunds to those who bought the game also shows they want to avoid backlash from the business model shift. To outside observers, when a game launches and quickly goes this route, the market sees it loud and clear: the current performance simply cannot support what was originally planned.
