As much flak as we give PlayerUnknown’s Battleground, we can’t help but admit it spawned an entirely new genre where recent games like Fortnite and Apex Legends can amass their own legion of fans and gamers. Its creator, Brendan Greene, should be proud.

So it’s no surprise that after five years of this, he decides to move on from PUBG and build up a new division that focuses on research and game development. In a company statement, he will be moving from Seoul to Amsterdam to lead a new division of PUBG Corp. called PUBG Special Projects. PUBG’s actual game development will be handled by Taeseok Jang and the PUBG team; Brendan will remain as a “consulting creative director”.

Here’s what he has to say regarding the departure:

“The past five years of my life has been all about battle royale. From the early days working on a mod to getting the chance to create my vision for a battle royale title, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

It’s been an incredible journey and our game has reached heights I never thought possible. Seeing the game grow into what it is today has been a dream come true and I can’t thank our fans and the incredible team at PUBG Corporation enough.”

What Next?

Brendan should feel proud knowing that he made a bunch of obnoxious Twitch and YouTube streamers even more grating with this stream-friendly game. That, and have self-sustaining jobs with the genre he’s created.

PUBG and PUBG Mobile are still the most-played battle royale games in Southeast Asia; we do wonder if his successor can keep the momentum going. Maybe if he can make the game look less like ass and fine-tune the controllers akin to a triple-A shooter, then maybe there’s hope.