PUBG Mobile’s producer talks tournaments, Transformers, and the two pillars

While our time at Gamescom 2025 might be drawing to a close, we’re still out in Cologne, speaking to the developers behind some of the world’s most popular games. That includes a certain Rick Li, the producer behind PUBG Mobile, who we were lucky enough to sit down with for a whole 30 minutes to discuss the past, present, and future of the battle royale blockbuster.

Covering everything from user-generated content to the future of competitive PUBG Mobile, our conversation with Li offers an unprecedented level of insight into what goes on behind the scenes of one of the best battle royale games on the scene. It’s worth noting, though, that Li had a translator for the interview, so we’ve had to interpret some of the answers ourselves. With that out of the way, let’s get into it.

Pocket Tactics: So what I’m looking forward to at the moment in PUBG Mobile is the user-generated content, and I know that there’s been some testing of that recently in an alpha. I’m just curious about the decision to bring that to the game and how it changes PUBG Mobile in a massive way.

Rick Li: That’s a very, very good question, and it’s something that we have been thinking about very consistently ever since the World of Wonder mode first came out. It has to do with the long-term strategy for PUBG Mobile to eventually become a platform for the gameplay that we want our players to experience.

Perhaps the most important part here is that we have very constant dialogs and conversations with our players, and the primary feedback that we’ve gotten is that they have a need for self-expression and creativity. So we really want to equip them with the hands-on experience to create the experience they want in PUBG Mobile. And that’s sort of the reasoning behind the UGC content we’re talking about.

Something else we noticed as well is that our players are very, very tightly connected via the gameplay of PUBG Mobile, and that’s something that we want to continue to encourage and grow. We want to provide them with a very holistic ecosystem of UGC gameplay for them to make that sort of connection.

PUBG Mobile’s got a very strong social atmosphere, and I’m curious to see how that weaves into the user-generated content as well and how it encourages players to engage with that.

We believe that there are three different types of players within the World of Wonder ecosystems. Because it’s a platform, we’re going to have creators, as in the map creators, but also there are also players who play those maps. At the same time, there are players who actively engage in commenting on the maps themselves. So the commentators provide feedback, and they’re very actively engaged in the creative process.

So what we imagine is, through the process of creators creating those maps, there’s an idea from the very beginning of the creative process transforming into prototypes, and it continues to get iterated based on player feedback and those players playing the game. So the three have a very organic way of interacting with each other in the ecosystem, and that creates a positive feedback loop that constantly adds to and fuels the creativity of the creators so that they continue improving their maps, and then all the other players can engage from a social level and contribute to the overall health of the ecosystem. So that’s sort of the social connectivity that we’re thinking of here.

PUBG Mobile has had a lot of great crossovers with different things in the past, be it Transformers or Assassin’s Creed. Will players be able to interact with those franchises in the user-generated content in any way?

How we really look at it is that from the regular update cadence, we put in a lot of effort in introducing new components, playable devices, and modules for our creators to use so that they can continually improve their maps. But specific to the crossovers and IP collaborations, the reality is it’s determined specifically for each IP and how we negotiate with the licensor. It’s our objective to bring in as many IP collaborations into World of Wonder as we can so that our creators can use that to continue to output new and exciting trending content for the World of Wonder community.

With the crossovers, because there are so many different ones that come to the game, I’m curious: what research do you do to introduce crossovers that you know players are going to enjoy?

We’re continually trying to optimize that process, but internally, we primarily look for two key factors. The first is brand fit, [we look at] the general brand perspective and characteristics of the IP, whether or not that fits what PUBG Mobile is as a video game. And then secondly, what does the IP have to offer, as in the unique features of those crossovers? It’s our core objective to make sure that it connects to a very deep and organic level of PUBG Mobile.

We don’t want it just to be, you know, we have this crossover, and it’s very, very shallow and surface-level. We really want to make sure that it’s deep and can bring positive player experiences. So from those two pillars of principles and how we look at these different crossovers, we generate a list of IPs that we believe fit that description, and then we utilize player surveys to preliminarily check the overall player sentiment towards these IPs. Then, we have internal discussions on how to proceed and the core creative direction for the collaboration.

Take Transformers, for example. First of all, we looked at Transformers, as in the IP itself, and it has a lot of elements that we talked about, and it fits what we want to achieve. So it has factions, like the Autobots, and it has combat, so there are weapons that we can integrate. And then there’s the sort of good versus bad, a very direct storyline. It encourages teamwork, where players are asked to come together and perform the task.

Then we look for that unique feature. In Transformers, you see a giant truck, a 16-wheeler, transform into a robot, and within PUBG Mobile, organically, we have vehicles as well. So the snapshot of that vehicle transforming into something that you drive in the game that transforms into a robot, that’s very interactive, and you’re able to fight alongside them. At the same time, they’re characters that you know and are familiar with. That’s the organic integration and angle that we’re looking for.

Are there any crossovers that you’re still chasing or that you’d love to bring to PUBG Mobile?

Due to ongoing negotiations, unfortunately, we can’t share the details and the exact IPs, as it’s confidential, but we have worked with very, very famous global IPs. We worked with Dragon Ball, we worked with Black Pink, all different fields, crossovers into all different categories, beyond gaming itself. There are more exciting blockbusters that are going to be new and implemented in very exciting ways, so please stay tuned.

Recently, we’ve seen modes like Metro Royale introduced into the game, which changes the whole format of PUBG Mobile. What’s the reception been like internally, looking at players jumping into those modes?

Metro is one of the gameplay directions that we’re exploring. In fact, internally, there are multiple different gameplay structures and new mechanics that we’re internally testing, and Metro is one that stood out, and then we decided to bring it to the audience.

There’s a difference between the traditional Battle Royale and Metro Royale. So in traditional BR, we’re looking at the last one standing model; one squad emerges victorious, and that’s it. It’s a standalone experience, and when you go on to the next match, the previous victory does not impact how your next game is going to go. So ever since the success of the BR mode, we have had a lot of player conversations to see whether or not we can integrate something that provides a long-term progression outside of the standalone matches.

Metro Royale shows a lot of potential. We’re looking at ways that players can accumulate resources. They’re able to loot and gain different items, and they’re able to make conscious decisions on their strategies for extraction. That allows players to make different, interesting decisions, both in the game, when they’re deciding the loot and the timing of the extraction, and also about what gear they bring into those matches. And that’s sort of the objective for us, to build that long-term progression and allow players to have objectives that they can continue to chase for a long period of time. That allows us to link different games together and create a different type of gameplay experience.

In the last few years, mobile hardware has gotten a lot better. I’m sure that opens up a lot more opportunities to experiment with the game and the new modes that you can create. I wondered if you could speak to that a little.

Hardware is very, very key to how we look at the overall content lineup. If we just step away from games, technology breakthroughs have always pushed forward the overall development of content, and it sort of marks those key milestones for all the entertainment that we’re experiencing. So gameplay-wise, we’re also looking at innovations that we can drive forward to provide new experiences, and the market as well. Subgenres will see changes, and player preference shifts over time as well. So there are a lot of different factors that we’re considering.

We really try to look at it from the player’s perspective and really dig in to ask the question, what exactly does our player want? The conclusion that we reach is that what they’re really looking for is an emotional connection. It’s a resonance from an emotional level, rather than any specific mechanics, so to speak.

If you think about it, why do players play a game in their busy daily lives? What sort of decisions lead them to pick a game as the one that they play every day, and how do they socialize and interact with other players? What they’re really looking for is how to make emotional connections within that sort of gameplay, or within that match.

Surrounding that core principle that we just talked about, we really look at how to build a game and to make sure we surround it with different features and content for that core principle. For each update, we will have some features that get us closer and provide new experiences for our players.

So if you try to visualize it, or if you look at my notes, there are two intrinsic circles, and how you look at our games ecosystem is that the inner circle is the core Battle Royale experience. That’s the base layer, but for the outer layer, there are the gameplay modes that we’re introducing to offer our players the experience that they prefer. So that points to Metro Royal, World of Wonder, and also Team Deathmatch for a faster gameplay experience.

What it really comes down to is we’re really making sure we meet different types of player needs. So in PUBG Mobile, there’s the home system where you’re allowed to build and decorate your home. There are also social features that allow you to socialize better with your friends. And there are competitive systems in place where we’re really encouraging players to push for that competitive side of PUBG Mobile.

Just to elaborate on the competitive side, esports is a sort of another way that we look at how to expand on that player experience. There are competitive systems in place to make sure we have a path towards the top competitive side of PUBG Mobile. The eventual goal here is to have tournaments and competitive systems in place where everyone can become a competitor. So we’ve had tournaments where over 150 different countries participate, and in this year’s EWC, we generated peak viewerships of around 1.38 million. So great results across the board.

What we just mentioned about the viewership and the participation eventually points to the player interest in the competitive side of PUBG Mobile. What we really want to make sure of is that we provide different regions across the world with different layers of esports tournaments and paths to the competitive side to encourage our players to engage.

Battle Royale is our base layer; that’s the most important bit, and we’ll continue to optimize and make sure we provide a new and optimized experience for our players to meet the needs that they’ve provided to us from the feedback perspective. We’ll continue the current structure of themed updates, where we’re bringing in different types of content from a cultural perspective and the trending perspective as well.
Beyond Battle Royale, we have multiple pipelines of different gameplay structures in place for development. We’ll make those announcements when they’re ready, but for the upcoming update, we’ll be introducing Unfail, which is the new gameplay mode for PUBG Mobile.

Circling back to what we began with, which is World of Wonder and the UGC side of things, we have two core objectives. One is we wanted to expand access, accessibility to our players, to make sure our editors and map creators are equipped with resources and the toolkit to allow them to express the creative side of things. And we also want to make sure that the integration of AI technologies improves efficiency in the map creation process.

The second part is to build the ecosystem of our UGC content. A core part of that is incentives for our creators, and we want them to be able to enjoy the process of creation. That’s the core objective: to have that sense of accomplishment among the community when they make a banner map and they get praise and likes. But we also want to make sure that they’re able to receive rewards and incentives to help them along the way, and therefore, from the side of PUBG Mobile, we’re able to really help to build that ecosystem for them that’s more sustainable.

In many parts of the world, we want to make sure that this gets expanded into career opportunities where players are able to create maps on PUBG Mobile and create new, exciting, and trending content for the community, and that can be their job.

There you have it, our chat with Rick Li, PUBG Mobile’s producer. For more from Gamescom 2025, be sure to check out our Resident Evil: Survival Unit interview with Shinji Hashimoto and our I Hate This Place preview while you’re here.