AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – 12 August, 2025 – PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions today announced its upcoming emergent single-player survival experience, Prologue: Go Wayback!, is now available in Open Beta on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Starting today, players can dive into a full version of the game in development and experience its unforgiving wilderness, dynamic weather systems, and hardcore survival mechanics across billions of worlds generated by the latest advances in the studio’s in-house technology.
Check out the Open Beta trailer here:
https://youtu.be/_hU9eG0-Ep8
Speaking about the decision to first launch into open beta, PLAYERUNKNOWN explained:
“After running playtests with our Discord community over the last 6 months, and receiving some fantastic feedback, we decided to take the time to add more ways to explore our generated worlds based on our community's suggestions.
We have a great survival experience, with millions of maps for players to explore in the Open Beta, and over the coming months leading up to our Early Access launch, we plan to add more features to further customise your preferred way to play.”
Watch PLAYERUNKNOWN’s message to the community:
https://youtube.com/shorts/WYULFCO49PQ
Prologue: Go Wayback! is an emergent survival experience where every journey is unique. Players can explore a 64km² map based on the Czech Bohemia region, generated locally on their system every time they press play.
Players will need to learn how to navigate and reach the Weather Tower, using just the tools at their disposal. Chart a path from shelter to shelter using a map and compass, and navigate the terrain by using natural landmarks and features like rivers, valleys, and mountain ridges.
Manage your body temperature by finding better clothes and by building fires to stay warm. Forage for edible food and seek out sources of drinkable water to survive the path you choose on your way to find the Weather Tower.
Go Wayback! is powered by the studio’s research into machine learning (ML) models to generate base terrain maps in Unreal Engine 5, which are then populated procedurally with custom assets such as trees, rivers, rocks, cliffs, hills, and shelters. Our artists and designers utilise our in-house ML model to generate 64km2 maps that appear both natural and realistic. The ML model is trained on publicly available open-source data and vetted to prevent the use of any copyrighted material.
The Open Beta will remain available until the launch of Early Access on Steam and Epic Games Store, and will be regularly updated with new features as we build towards the Early Access launch.
Players can join the official Discord to share feedback and sign up to help playtest upcoming features, such as a Map Editor that will allow players to create terrain from designs they can draw themselves, or import from images they can load into the Editor.
Key Features
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A New Map Every Time You Play: Explore vast, procedurally generated landscapes created using our artist-guided ML generation system.
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Dynamic Weather System: Face powerful storms, freezing blizzards, rampaging thunderstorms across an environment that can change at a moment’s notice.
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Emergent Player Freedom: No quest markers, no scripted path, and nobody to tell you how to play. What you do is up to you.
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Realistic navigation: Use a compass, a map, natural landmarks, and your gut feeling. Learn to chart your path and navigate nature across a journey that is uniquely yours.
Another step towards Project Artemis
The launch of the Open Beta of Prologue: Go Wayback! marks a significant step forward in the development of Project Artemis, PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions' long-term mission to create and deliver a technology and platform that enables massive-scale creation and emergent play.
To produce the technology to power Project Artemis, the studio is developing its own in-house Melba engine, which can be explored in the continuously updated playable tech demo, Preface: Undiscovered World.
As the first of three planned titles, Prologue: Go Wayback! is designed to be a standalone single-player game experience built around the studio’s technological progress to create realistic terrain generation at scale.
PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions’ future titles will solve other problems of creating massive online worlds at scale, and we invite the community to follow and build our journey towards that future together.
Follow the journey: Discord / Instagram / X / TikTok / YouTube
Store Pages: Steam / Epic Games Store
Download the press kit: Press Kit
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About PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions
Founded in 2021 by Brendan “PLAYERUNKNOWN” Greene, PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of interactive entertainment. With a team of sixty engineers and artists committed to innovation and creativity, the studio aims to develop emergent digital worlds that redefine the gaming experience.
PRESS AND CREATOR CONTACT INFORMATION
Game Drive
Bram van Lith & Peter Logan
bram@game-drive.nl / peter@game-drive.nl