On Friday, GamesBeat held its first PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Family Chicken Dinner night. For hours, game developers and designers, composers, writers, and other media personalities came together to fight over a few measly drumsticks and a breast piece. It was a blast, and we’re planning to do this again soon. In the meantime, we’ve collected some of the highlights from the evening for your viewing pleasure.
Battlegrounds is a massive success. It is among the most played games on Steam and has sold more than 5 million copies since its debut in March. It has caught on with so many players thanks to its focus on last-person-standing multiplayer that encourages a variety of play styles and give players a chance to learn the basics without the expectation that they should come out on top.
You can watch the entire Family Dinner on Twitch. Keep an eye out for the #PUBGFamilyDinner hastag on Twitter for future events in this series. Until then, here are some of my favorite moments from Friday night.
An easy win for Rudeface
Our first match of the night ended abruptly for the winner after the other two survivors got in a fight on the edge of the blue line. It turns out that you can easily lose a match by winning a fight as player J_Dizzle learned the hard way.
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Spoiler: Gary Whitta can’t see
Book of Eli and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story screenwriter Gary Whitta got in on the action as well, and he got into a lengthy fight with DrJonez. Whitta nearly took out his enemy when DrJonez attempted to run across a street, but his last few shots flew into the wall in front of him.
Patrick Rothfuss gets stuck between a blue line and a sniper
The Kingkiller Chronicles author Patrick Rothfuss filled out our roster late in the night, and he nearly led his team to victory. After his teammates all died around him, Rothfuss had the dangerous blue wall behind him (that damages players who don’t stay ahead of it) and a sniper with 14 kills in front of him — and he nearly pulled it off before the circle forced him to move.
One versus Giant bomb
We later opened up the matches to viewers, and one of the stars of these bouts was XenXero. This player went into five-person squad games alone and regularly killed all or close to everyone on multiple teams. That led to an impressive fight where XenXero battled it out with the five members of Team Giant Bomb that included Dan Ryckert, Bianca Monda, Casey Malone, Alex Navarro, and Brad Shoemaker.
I believe I might say it in the clip, but you would think that a 5-on-1 battle would embarrass the 5-person team, but XenXero was clearly so good that it was actually quite exciting.
#LiveMas
Speaking of Dan and Bianca, they made headlines earlier this year for getting married at a Taco Bell. Dan proved that he can still #LiveMas in this clip where he deals with the duo of DrJonez and Skrattybones by stealing the boat they’re on, driving it away, and then jumping out before they remembered they could kill him.
Dave Lang knows car chases and Kung Fu
At the start of one of our later matches, Dave Lang, an executive with Killer Instinct developer Iron Galaxy, got into a huge car chase around the map with player Koreagle.
That led to them eventually ending up in a fist fight (they never picked up weapons) at the military base. It was a cinematic moment — and one that Lang is very proud of.
