Prologue: Go Wayback! News

The May Closed Beta begins tomorrow, Wednesday 7th May at 5pm CEST / 8am PT. Head to our Discord to take part!



Go Wayback! is PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions’ emergent hardcore survival simulation game project. Take on Mother Nature, journey through a procedurally generated wilderness, and find your way to the watchtower to escape.

Our in-house tech generated a vast number of playable maps and due to the nature of this guided generation there are simply too many scenarios to explore fully on our own. That’s where you come in. We are running regular playtests to gather invaluable feedback to help the development of the game and resolve bugs. Check out our User Support Hub where you can find technical support and track changes.

[h2]How to get involved in the May Closed Beta[/h2]

Head over to our Discord to sign up and grab your key. While signups are on a first-come first-served basis, we want to make sure there are enough to go around. If you miss out on this one, you can sign up to get notified of the next one.

We’re excited to hear your thoughts and insights on Go Wayback!
- The PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions Team

The April playtest of Prologue: Go Wayback! will run from April 7th through to April 14th. Head to the official Discord to grab your Steam key and get hands on with the game.

Image captured by community member 5qu34k during the March playtest.

Go Wayback! is a hardcore survival game set in terrain that is produced by our in-house technology. Our tech uses guided generation to produce vast numbers of maps, far too many to completely explore. It is via playtesters that our developers get a deeper sense of these terrains.

We use playtests to find and resolve bugs. So while we do our best to offer a polished experience of the game, there is a non-zero chance that a technical error will pop up during the playtest. In some cases some checks can help out, and to catalogue these fixes we have set up our User Support Hub where you can find some technical support for Prologue: Go Wayback!

[h2]How to take part in the March Playtest[/h2]

Our playtest are managed from our community Discord. Sign ups will open on Monday April 7th. Once sign ups are open, keys are first come first served. We expect everyone who is able to sign up within the first few hours to be able to grab a key. We want you to try out our game, so we’ll make sure that its not super competitive.

We look really forward to hearing your experiences and insights. We hope to see you on Discord!

—The PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions Team

We're excited for the upcoming playtest of our Early Access title, Prologue: Go Wayback! The event starts on the week of March 17th, head to our Discord to take part.

Our goal with Go Wayback! is to craft a challenging survival experience set within the varied environments produced by our in-house terrain generation technology. Our technology works by producing a vast number of maps, far too many to completely explore. So, it is through the experience of playtesters that our developers get a deeper sense of this world. Sometimes our playtesters discover awesome environments, but they also often find ones that are kind of weird. It’s a fun journey and we’re extremely grateful to all the explorers who help out.


We do our best to offer a smooth experience, but there is a non-zero chance that you will experience a technical error during the playtest. In some cases some checks can help out, and to catalogue these fixes we have set up a User Support Hub where you can find some technical support for Prologue: Go Wayback!

During this playtest we’re eager to showcase and validate two main updates:

• We have reworked the forest environment for significantly better performance on a wider variety of systems. As a result we have lowered our playtest min spec and are curious to hear back on how the game is running.
  
• We have introduced a major update to the river generation system—this is just an initial implementation, so there will doubtless be some interesting (read: odd) artefacts, we’re excited to discover those alongside you.

On the survival front, we've increased complexity and challenge. Updates to our wetness system mean players will need to work harder to stay dry and warm. Meanwhile we have tweaked weather conditions to pose a greater threat. But we have also added tools and systems to help you navigate these harsher conditions more strategically. Additionally, cabins now function more fully: you'll find useful items, electricity, and a means to dry yourself after exposure to the elements. (Plus, we’ve added a simple end to the game. Good luck getting there though!)

[h2]How to take part in the March Playtest[/h2]

Our playtest are managed from our community Discord. Sign ups will open on March 17th. Once sign ups are open, keys are first come first served. We expect everyone who is able to sign up within the first few hours to be able to grab a key. We want you to try out our game, so we’ll make sure that its not super competitive.


We are hoping to use the data from the March Playtest to make some balance changes to survival difficulty. Advanced the updated river systems based on your feedback. And, confirm improved performance on both minimum and recommended system specifications. We’ll continue adding new features, deepening the survival systems, addressing any bugs discovered in the world, and further enhancing rivers and crossings to enrich exploration.

We look really forward to hearing your experiences and insights. We hope to see you on Discord.

—The PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions Team

Today, we revealed the first gameplay trailer for Prologue: Go Wayback! and confirmed that the game will launch in Summer 2025 via Steam Early Access.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Prologue: Go Wayback! is a single-player open-world survival game that challenges players to navigate vast, unpredictable landscapes shaped by our machine-learning-driven terrain generation technology. In each session, players must read the environment, manage resources, and survive dynamic weather conditions while searching for the Weather Tower—the only point of extraction. No two journeys are ever the same.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2943740/Prologue_Go_Wayback/

Alongside the trailer, Brendan “PLAYERUNKNOWN” Greene sat down with IGN to discuss the studio’s vision, the technology behind Prologue, and how it serves as the foundation for future projects, including our long-term goal: Project Artemis—a large-scale, emergent sandbox world.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Head to our Discord to RSVP for our upcoming playtest at the link below to get your hands on Prologue: Go Wayback! and help shape development. The playtest will take place on the week of March 17th.
JOIN OUR DISCORD

We’ve added a range of new features and fixes into Prologue: Go Wayback! based on your feedback from December’s playtest—and now we invite you to experience these updates for yourself. Our next playtest starts Monday, February 3rd, 2025, and we encourage you to join via our Discord, and help guide the future of the project.

[h2]Join the PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions Discord to Participate[/h2] This is your gateway to the playtest. When sign ups go live you can find them here. We also coordinate the playtest from our Discord with channels for feedback and chat, along with all the latest news and announcements.

[h2]Playtest Minimum Specifications[/h2]
Please note, these requirements are higher than our planned min spec at launch - which you can check out on the Prologue Steam page.

• OS: windows 10
  
• Processor: Intel Core i5-10600K
  
• Memory: 24 GB RAM (32 GB recommended)
  
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080/3070
  
• DirectX: Version 12
  
• Storage: 10 GB available space
  

[h2]Recent Improvements[/h2]
We don’t want to spoil, so will not publish here. But for those who are curious we have shared our first patch notes in the community Discord (under a spoilers tag, so no worries if you'd like to join but don't want to read).

We’re excited to see what you think after this first round of changes.

Join our playtest and see firsthand how your suggestions have shaped Prologue: Go Wayback!.

We appreciate your continued input as we develop Prologue.