If you find the idea of a glum, grey, survival game appealing (which you might, given PUBG’s popularity), there’s some good news for you.
PUBG’s immediate precursor, H1Z1 as of today is a free to play title. It began its life cycle ad H1Z1: King of the Kill, a mode where PUBG’s creator Brendan Green worked as a consultant after he emerged as the guru of Battle Royale modes thanks to Arma and DayZ mods he developed. After some time the survival H1Z1 split into Just Survive, while H1Z1: King of the Kill dropped the subtitle. It’s confusing, and reminiscent of the Frankenstein-Frankenstein’s Monster thing people love bringing up.
Anyway, if you want to see the previous big Battle Royale game for free, just grab it on Steam. As for those, who bought the game back when it had to be bought, they’ll get a pack containing some 3 skins, 10 lootboxes, and 10k of the game’s currency.