PUBG Mobile is turning Battle Royale into a reality show in Bali. The first trailer for *Trial of Fire* takes itself very seriously, but comes across as unintentionally funny.
PUBG is getting a reality show—a real-life Battle Royale with real people on a real island.
So, of course, not real in the sense of: 100 people jumping out of a plane, beating each other with frying pans, and fleeing a closing death zone. But real enough that 16 teams are flying to Bali to compete in an arena for the so-called “Flame of Glory.”
The first trailer, however, doesn’t exactly give the impression that the next big entertainment format is being born here. Rather, it looks as though someone threw RTL’s “Jungle Camp” and the Kreissparkasse Paderborn summer festival into the same blender.
The trailer is dead serious
The funniest thing about Trial of Fire isn’t even the idea itself: Turning a battle royale game into a reality competition doesn’t sound all that far-fetched. Ninja Warrior, Beast Games, and Takeshi’s Castle have long shown that people enjoy watching others fail at games that are sometimes more, sometimes less silly.
The thing is more about how seriously and unironically the whole thing is staged.
In the trailer, the contestants march through a tropical setting, ride ATVs, run along the beach, and aim NERF blasters at each other. All this is accompanied by the usual epic music, dramatic cuts, and that tone of voice as if someone were about to reinvent the future of entertainment:
Particularly curious is the contrast between ambition and attention: After about 24 hours, the trailerhad just 78 views.
Maybe we just aren’t the target audience
Still, you shouldn’t completely write off Trial of Fire: PUBG may no longer be the all-encompassing Battle Royale sensation it was in 2017 and 2018, but the brand is still huge, especially on smartphones.
Mobile gaming plays a significantly larger role in emerging markets such as India, Myanmar, Indonesia, and the Philippines than in many Western countries.
Perhaps Trial of Fire strikes a chord precisely there, and what from a German perspective quickly looks like trash TV à la “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!” could very well work as an event in other markets.
The trailer still makes it hard to believe. Maybe the finished show, which you can watch on YouTube starting May 30, will be more entertaining than the first impression suggests. Right now, though, it mostly looks like a format that wants to come across as very tough, even though in the end it’s just people running around Bali with toy guns.
