Facts first: on November 7, 2018, the Microsoft Store began listing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 (PES 2019) for free on Xbox One, on pages with the notice “free for a limited time.” The pages did not say how long the offer lasted, and the first reading, including here at SavePoint, was that you could claim the games and keep them forever.
Translating the digital store jargon: it was not quite that. Coverage at the time was updated the same day, and the offer was a Free Play Days, Xbox’s free game weekend, from November 8 to 11. In practice, this meant you could download and play both titles freely during the period, but the free access ended on Sunday.
The date had a reason. On Saturday, November 10, Microsoft was holding X018, a fan event in Mexico City, and had already been promising PUBG news. There, the company announced that PUBG would come to Xbox Game Pass, presented other games for the service, confirmed keyboard and mouse support on Xbox One and closed the night with the purchase of two studios: Obsidian Entertainment, of Fallout: New Vegas, and inXile Entertainment, of Wasteland 2.
The context helps: PUBG had been an Xbox One console exclusive since early access in December 2017, and would only reach the PS4 on December 7, 2018. PES 2019, from Konami, had come out in August 2018.
What came next
PUBG went free-to-play for good on January 12, 2022, on all platforms, under the name PUBG: Battlegrounds. The PES series ceased to exist under that name: in 2021, Konami replaced it with eFootball, a free-to-play game. A dry joke to close: the “free forever” ended up arriving, just three years later.
Source: Gearnuke and Wccftech.
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