How PUBG MOBILE And Naruto Redefined What Anime Crossovers in Games Actually Look Like

Hidden Leaf Village recreated for battle royale thrills, ninjutsu and boss encounters reshape classic PUBG MOBILE combat. Published Aug 26, 2026, 12:19 PM EDT Ewan is Deputy Editor for ScreenRant's gaming section. He still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase, and knows more about The Legend of Zelda and Doctor Who than is probably healthy. Ewan oversees the content operation of ScreenRant's gaming output, working with a talented team of writers and editors to cover everything from the latest GTA 6 news to the indie games you need on your radar. Former Editor of GAMINGbible, Ewan also has words at Kotaku, Den of Geek, NME, and UNILAD. He's appeared on various podcasts, including VGC's and BBC's Let's Talk About Tech. When it comes to epic crossovers, PUBG MOBILE has had more than its fair share. The free-to-play battle royale has, since launching back in 2018, crossed over with the likes of Ferrari, Dragon Ball Super, Dying Light: The Beast, and even Spider-Man: Brand-New Day. But its recent NARUTO SHIPPUDEN event might just be PUBG MOBILE’s biggest and most ambitious to date. PUBG MOBILE X NARUTO SHIPPUDEN kicked off on July 9, featuring completely transformed environments, iconic NARUTO SHIPPUDEN locations, and playable ninjutsu abilities that change PUBG MOBILE in unexpected ways, alongside co-operative PvE encounters including battles against The Nine-Tails. Throw in themed character sets and content inspired by NARUTO, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Hinata, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Gaara, and Madara? Well, you’ve got yourself a party no self-respecting NARUTO SHIPPUDEN would want to miss. There’s even an original animated OVA produced in partnership with Studio Pierrot. Luckily for you, the event is set to continue until September 7, so you’ve still got loads of time to check it out. And if you’re still not convinced, ScreenRant sat down with Vincent Wang, General Manager and Head of PUBG MOBILE Publishing, Tencent Games, and Rick Li, Producer of PUBG MOBILE and Deputy General Manager of Quantum Studio, LightSpeed Studios, Tencent Games, to learn how they made this one of PUBG MOBILE’s most impressive collaborations yet. Wang explains what makes this NARUTO SHIPPUDEN crossover particularly special and notable in its ambition. “Over the years, our understanding of collaborations has undergone a very clear evolution,” he begins. “In the early days, we primarily used skins, items, and Easter eggs to let players see elements of the partnered IP in the game. But as player expectations rose, we began to focus more on how to truly integrate the IP into gameplay, how to align it with PUBG MOBILE's match structure and core philosophy, and how the two worldviews fit together, so that collaboration content becomes more deeply embedded in the game. “The NARUTO SHIPPUDEN project can be seen as the culmination of our years of collaboration experience. Characters, ninjutsu, scenarios, PvE content, and creator tools are no longer separate modules; together they form an interconnected collaborative experience that can continue to evolve and expand in the future.” Wang also notes the similarities between the two franchises, at least in terms of philosophy. “PUBG MOBILE has always emphasized resilience in the face of adversity and trust among teammates — values that align closely with the ‘Will of Fire’ in NARUTO SHIPPUDEN, which embodies the conviction to protect one's comrades and never give up. There’s also a natural affinity between our user bases. Since PUBG MOBILE launched eight years ago, the game has reached over one billion users globally. We have also observed that our player community contains a great many NARUTO SHIPPUDEN fans. This organic overlap in audiences made the collaboration a highly fitting choice.” PUBG Mobile Vincent Wang - General Manager and Head of PUBG MOBILE Publishing, Tencent Games The collaboration introduces character abilities based on iconic NARUTO SHIPPUDEN techniques, including Rasengan, Chidori and Flying Raijin, each designed to bring a distinct tactical role to PUBG MOBILE’s battle royale gameplay. How do you add abilities like this into a game that primarily involves shooting guns? It shouldn’t work on paper, yet it does in practice. Rick Li, Producer of PUBG MOBILE and Deputy General Manager of Quantum Studio at LightSpeed Studios, Tencent Games, tells us how they pulled it off. “The adaptation of all three ninjutsu follows the same principle: the most recognizable signature traits from the original work must be preserved, but once they enter PUBG MOBILE, they must have clear, controllable tactical roles,” says Li. “We do not replicate the absolute power levels seen in the anime; instead, we retain the animations, mechanics, and audio-visual memory points, and then adjust values and usage conditions according to the match tempo.” Some examples: Rasengan keeps its main characteristics of charge, close‑range approach, and point‑blank burst, creating a risk-and-reward close-range burst attack. Meanwhile, Chidori emphasizes high‑speed dashing and lightning‑based burst damage, meaning players have to think tactically about when best to unleash it. The Flying Raijin Technique, of course, adds mobility through repositioning and surprise attacks. And for that extra layer of authenticity, these abilities come with the iconic hand-sign animations, sound effects, and official voice packs. “Balance is achieved primarily through area of effect, cooldown duration, mark validity, and usage restrictions,” Li continues. “Ninjutsu can shift positioning and create opportunities, but marksmanship, judgment, movement, and team coordination remain the foundation that determines victory.” One of the coolest parts of the NARUTO SHIPPUDEN collaboration is easily the Hidden Leaf Village. This iconic ninja settlement is fully explorable in PUBG MOBILE and includes plenty of recognizable landmarks. You can also find interactive spots, hidden content, and story clues to various landmarks, as well as dynamic PvE encounters that can appear throughout the village. How did the team recreate these areas while making sure they still lent themselves to the kind of tactical action we’re used to from the game? Li tells us: “We preserved core structures such as the Hidden Leaf Gate, Hokage Rock, the Ninja Academy, and the village streets, but we did not simply replicate the anime scenes as static, walkthrough exhibits. We re‑evaluated cover, elevation differences, passageways, entry/exit points, and line‑of‑sight relationships, enabling the Hidden Leaf Village to support holding angles, rotating, flanking, and multi‑player offense and defense.” “Ultimately, we aim to achieve a state where NARUTO SHIPPUDEN fans can instantly recognize the familiar Hidden Leaf Village, while players unfamiliar with the original work will want to stay because the area itself is enjoyable to explore, fight in, and have fun with.” Rick Li - Producer of PUBG MOBILE and Deputy General Manager of Quantum Studio, LightSpeed Studios, Tencent Games You’ll find authenticity is at the heart of this event, from the way the team has considered how certain techniques should work, to the locations you can explore. However, Li tells us the crossover was not anchored to any specific episode, arc, or moment from the series. The team chose instead to look at NARUTO SHIPPUDEN as a whole to identify which parts of the original world would best translate to PUBG MOBILE. It’s a decision that clearly paid off in spades. Li explains: “For ninjutsu, Rasengan draws from NARUTO’s training and classic close‑combat scenes, with a focus on preserving the charge‑up and point‑blank burst; Chidori references Sasuke's signature lightning‑style battles, emphasizing high‑speed dashing and lightning‑flash impact; Flying Raijin takes inspiration from Minato Namikaze's iconic teleportation duels, retaining the core mechanics of mark‑and‑teleport traversal. The Nine‑Tails gameplay takes the ‘Nine‑Tails' Attack on the Hidden Leaf’ as its primary reference. The scale of the Nine‑Tails, its battlefield destruction, environmental pressure, and the scene of the entire village uniting to defend it directly shaped the boss‑fight setting and cooperative rules.” Unlike the ninjutsu, which are designed as player abilities, The Nine-Tails introduces a large-scale PvE challenge, turning one of NARUTO’s most iconic moments into a cooperative boss encounter where players must work together against a shared threat. Speaking of the Nine-Tails, how on Earth did the team manage to incorporate a giant mythical fox made of living chakra into PUBG MOBILE? Like so many other things about this collaboration, it shouldn’t work, but it absolutely does. Li tells us that Kurama (Nine-Tails) became the centerpiece of the event because it simultaneously connects the protagonist's growth, the history of the Hidden Leaf, and the most significant conflicts in the NARUTO SHIPPUDEN world. “It is also a symbol that even players with only a passing familiarity with the source material can quickly recognize,” he adds. “Its sheer scale and impact are sufficient to support a large‑scale event involving every player in the match.The story of the Nine-Tails' Attack on Konoha naturally lends itself to multiplayer cooperation. It emphasizes not the victory of a single character, but rather everyone standing together against a crisis to defend their home—a theme that resonates strongly with PUBG MOBILE’s multiplayer and team‑play focus.” It was also important not to include Nine-Tails as a damage sponge, but to ensure the battle was genuinely interesting to play. That’s why it includes phase transitions, area suppression, environmental interference, and changing damage windows. Players need to manage their positioning, divide roles, and coordinate their attacks. “We want players to feel that they are not facing an oversized character model, but rather a real crisis that sweeps through the Hidden Leaf Village and demands a collective response from everyone,” Li says. Beyond world-building, combat systems, original animation, and multiple game modes, the collaboration also extends into World of Wonder, allowing creators to use official NARUTO SHIPPUDEN-inspired assets to build and share their own NARUTO SHIPPUDEN-inspired experiences within PUBG MOBILE. Li explains NARUTO SHIPPUDEN is such a vast universe that it would have been difficult to fully contain it within a single mode! “Bringing collaboration content into different gameplay modes is not just about expanding reach—it is about presenting different facets of its appeal through combat, exploration, and creation, so that different types of players can experience the emotional resonance of NARUTO SHIPPUDEN in the modes they are most familiar with. The Classic mode is the ideal place to integrate ninjutsu with tactical competitive gameplay. In WOW mode, we wanted to put the content provided by the official team directly into the hands of creators.” He continues: “In WOW, we have released the full set of NARUTO SHIPPUDEN‑themed scenes, components, ninjutsu visual effects, and other related assets. The Hidden Leaf Village, Rogue Ninjas, Kakashi, the Nine‑Tails, ninjutsu, and themed items can all be used as creative materials. We hope that players will use these assets to create a wide variety of experiences, such as narrative challenges, puzzle adventures, ninjutsu duels, boss battles, and more. Most exciting of all, creators can freely combine these materials to design rules and experiences that the official team never imagined, allowing this collaboration to continue evolving beyond the version update and enabling the story of NARUTO SHIPPUDEN to live on in new ways.” This is, undoubtedly, a gigantic collaboration. With so many characters, locations, abilities, and ways to play, the biggest challenge was simply making sure gameplay and balance were held to the same standards as source material fidelity. As Li tells it: “Even if a piece of content was visually faithful enough, if it disrupted the pacing or fairness of a match upon entering the game, it could not be adopted directly.” “The adaptation of ninjutsu was the most complex part of this process. It had to allow fans to instantly recognize the signature traits of the source material, while at the same time not diminishing the core status of gunplay, tactical judgment, and team coordination in PUBG MOBILE.” Finally, Vincent Wang shares his thoughts on why anime crossovers resonate so strongly: “Classic anime and its audience rarely share a one-off content relationship. Character development, long-running narratives, and shared memories accompany users for many years, providing a remarkably stable emotional connection. What makes games unique is that they transform this emotional connection from passive viewing into active participation. Players can step into familiar settings, use iconic abilities, interact with characters, and create new memories with friends that go beyond the original work.” There can be no doubt: The PUBG MOBILE x NARUTO SHIPPUDEN crossover is genuinely excellent. However, it’s also indicative of constantly evolving expectations when it comes to crossover events. As Wang points out, it wasn’t that long ago that a few character skins and Easter eggs were enough to satisfy fans. These days, it’s shifted from "putting IP into a game" to "translating IP into a gameplay experience." “Gameplay depth, fidelity to the source material, consistency across content, and whether there is room for ongoing player engagement and creation will all become increasingly important,” Wang concludes. Going by what they’ve accomplished here, there’s plenty to be excited about for PUBG MOBILE. The PUBG MOBILE x NARUTO SHIPPUDEN collaboration is available to experience in-game now until September 7. Jump into PUBG MOBILE and check it out here. Systems Released March 19, 2018 ESRB T For Teen due to Violence, Blood Developer(s) LightSpeed & Quantum Studio Publisher(s) Tencent Engine Unreal Engine 4 Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Franchise PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds