It’s been over three years since PUBG first popped up on Steam, and while that’s a relatively short time on paper, it somehow feels much longer. Perhaps it’s because the wider gaming landscape around PUBG has changed so much: no longer the only battle royale on the block, PUBG now finds itself sharing that market space with several competitors, with a new contender appearing practically every few months.
Given the game is no longer sparkling new and the battle royale market is so crowded, it’s little wonder PUBG’s player numbers are not what they were in 2017. But that’s not to say the game has disappeared – it’s still able to pull in 500k Steam concurrents on a daily basis, and has now sold 70m units. With PUBG heading into its eighth season (on 22nd July for PC and 30th July for consoles and Stadia), it seems as good a time as any to catch up on the general state of the game. I asked PUBG Madison studio director Dave Curd about PUBG Corp’s long-term strategy, the Sanhok map remaster, and what sort of changes we’ll see in Season 8. And also what’s happening with those controversial bots.
We’ve seen a couple of map remasters from PUBG Corp already: starting with Erangel and then Vikendi, the latest to get the makeover treatment is Sanhok, with seemingly everything getting an overhaul in Season 8. I mean this quite literally. “Every building, wall, floor, rock, blade of grass and tree has been updated to have better, more accurate fidelity in terms of materials,” Curd said of the updated art style. “From a storytelling perspective we really want to show that it’s been some time since players have been to Sanhok, so more moss, algae, overgrowth… we really wanted the players to feel like they were exploring this overgrown jungle environment.” On top of revamping the old, there’s also a couple of new locations, including a tourist town called Getaway with a neon nightclub and pool cabanas, and an airfield at the north-eastern end of the map to replace the coconut farm.
“I would say with the Erangel visual update, perhaps 15 to 20 per cent of the design was changed, we were really conservative and wanted to make sure we kept all the fans happy,” Curd explained. “But with Sanhok it feels close to 30 to 35 per cent different. This should be a very fresh experience for our players.”
Season 8 Preview: Sanhok | PUBG Watch on YouTube
The changes go beyond just looking pretty, as PUBG Corp has used player feedback and internal data to inform how the redesigned terrain will affect gameplay. The north-west mountain, which has traditionally been seen as strong and overpowered, has been “totally reworked” to have “more flanks and more switchbacks to allow more tactical gameplay”, also giving those in Bootcamp a chance to leave without being shredded. A number of changes target traversal, such as adding more bridges and sub-islands, drying up rivers to make them shallower, and removing sheer cliffs. Named locations have seen tweaks to make them more balanced, with Quarry altered to have “way more traversal and cover” and Pai Nan given “more parkour, more under the docks and sneaking around”.