How to play PUBG/PUBG mobile on Linux? Is it possible…

PUBG is one of the most popular and most played video games ever made. Every day there are the number of players in PUBG is increasing. The game PUBG first got the attention of the battle royal lovers in Windows PC platform. Afterwards, it turns into Xbox One and PlayStation 4 platforms. Even to reach furthermore consumers they launched the already popular game into Mobile platforms, both in Android and iOS. Which in turn as another standalone game called PUBG Mobile, which has its own dedicated servers, shop and update features and season schedules. The launch in the Mobile platform has become an immense success, especially for those regions where the number of Xbox or PS4 players are very limited. In southern Asia, it has become the biggest success of all for the game Known as PUBG Mobile.

Even after these immense achievements, there are some wannabe players around the world who can not play the game as they are using Pc with Linux OS only. As the developers have not launched any Linux version for the game yet, and there is clearly no news on any predicted Linux based version launch, the chance to taste the game for those Linux users is very low.

In past few months, over the internet, it has become a topic for debate, whether there is any way to play the game PUBG or PUBG Mobile on the Linux pc or not.

As most of us have heard about the software technology called Emulator, which enables a platform to some program form another platform, most of the debaters wonder if it is possible to play PUB on Linux using the same technology.

First of all, you have to know that there is an official version Emulator form the developers of PUBG Mobile been released at 2018 called Tencent Gaming Buddy, which let the Windows user play the PUBG Mobile on their pc just like any other Pc game. This release was mainly targeted for those players who are not willing to buy the PUBG PC version which costs around $14. But there is no same type of release for Linux users from the developers ever happened.

Now many of us already know there is an Emulator called “WINE” available for Linux, which let the users run most of the Windows app on Linux platform. This is the point where the beacon of hope still looms, as Emulation is possible on Linux too. Now the question arises it possible for PUBG or PUBG Mobile too or not?

Whatever now I am going to state is my personal experience as I tried myself to find a way to play PUBG with Linux just for fun. So, I experimented in many ways and here’s what I found.

  • Running PUBG Pc version with WINE on Linux is actually impossible, the reason behind is the kernel level of anti-cheat program the game uses. The anti-cheat program is called battleye, which is also used in some other games Like Fortnite, Apex Legends etc. So, if you are trying to play the PUBG Pc version then you need to have a dual boot system, no other way is there.
  • Though you can try using Virtual Machine application, even in that case, you have to install Windows OS into that Virtual Machine environment to play PUBG Pc on that.
  • There is one more way through which you can try to play (I said “try to play” right) the game. Using some streaming service, you can try to play the game but remember if you managed to do so then also you will the problem of huge latency in the game, which may make the game running but unplayable.

If you still want to give it a try, then I am stating the two possible way here:

  • Use a virtual Machine app and use VFIO to play the game in the Virtual environment. Though the support depends on your version of Linux. As Linux has a countless number of distros so, testing in all of those versions was not possible for me. I tried this method with Ubuntu and it worked.
  • Second, you can use GPU cloud streaming services of Liguidsky or the streaming services of Paperspace.

Now discussing the major problems which you are about to face while using the above-said methods:

How to play PUBG mobile on Linux Is it possible…

PUBG Pc comes with the pre-patched Battleye anti-cheat technology, which will try to gain access to various windows level features to ensure there is no cheating happening, which are not possible while using Windows OS on a virtual machine, if those conditions are not met, the anti-cheat tech is programmed to kick you out of the game or even ban you from their server according to their anti-cheat perspective.

If you are going to use cloud streaming services – though it is a viable option for playing PUBG Pc on Linux, for Liquidsky and Paperspace servers to work seamlessly, you will need to have very high speed and very stable internet connection to get consistent output. As the game will be rerouting from some other server to your pc the process is going to take much more time than usual, so here latency-oriented issues, lags, stutter all can be seen while playing the game. To have a Lag-free gaming session while using cloud services you may need to buy their monthly subscription too. Then also there is no guarantee on the performance, but this procedure will work for sure. But, again in a multiplayer online battle royal game network speed is imminent, and while using a cloud service to play the game the latency issues will arise for sure even with the best internet connection and the most premium cloud membership.

Though there are some theories and articles over the internet where you can go and read, that PUBG Pc may be ported to Linux in future, as some of the popular games already been ported in Linux in the past. But nothing is sure until the developer declares anything.

One more point remains, which is about how to play PUBG Mobile on Linux? The thing is to play the PUBG Mobile in pc players do use Android to Pc Emulators. Players can use BlueStacks, Nox player, LD Player, MEmu etc. but the best one is the official emulator from the PUBG developers which is the TGB (Tencent Gaming Buddy). Now to run any of these emulators on Linux platform again you have to use a virtual machine environment, or you can also use WINE to any of those above-said Emulator applications.

But the problems which can arise, due to running an Emulator through another Emulator some Kernal problem will arise for sure.

Instead of WINE you also can try GenyMotion, to play the game, but the Kernal problem may arise here too.

Though it is advised to try with these methods as some Debian based Linux OS or mint based Linux OS may be able to pull through it.

Also, remember there will be performance issues while playing the game due to heavy processing load on the CPU (as the CPU is playing two Emulator and the game at the same time).

But, again for fun, experiment and knowledge purposes trying the above-said methods are advised for the enthusiastic.

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