Fans have to wait a bit longer than anticipated to get their hands on the dynamic vaulting and climbing system coming to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds . Bluehole and PUBG Corporation announced the delay on social media, via the game’s official Twitter account, but did not cite a specific cause.
The news comes less than 24 hours after PUBG ’s social media team confirmed the development team encountered a major error durings last-minute internal testing. The team was apparently hopeful that it could rectify the issue before test servers went live on Thursday morning. But that outlook has changed and now the studio isn’t quite sure when testing will begin. There’s no reason to believe the delay will impact the game’s late December launch timeline, but additional information is scarce.
The problem is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is looking at several multi-week testing periods to collect data on the dynamic vaulting and climbing mechanics teased at E3. Testing such a complex system requires a stable server environment. And that’s something PUBG has been struggling with for weeks now, thanks to its growing community -- which recently surged past the 18 million player mark -- and the hoops some fans have to jump through to access the game’s servers. It’s not surprising to hear the studio say it wants to make sure test servers are functioning as intended before granting access to the general public. But it is disappointing to have the goal posts shift so close to the start of the first public tests.
The studio says it will continue to work on whatever error(s) forced PUBG Corp. to delay the first phase of launch build testing. The company also says fans can expect a new test schedule, one that hopefully includes start dates for phases two and three too, as soon as PUBG Corp. finds a solution for the errors experienced internally.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available in Early Access. The launch build is expected to hit Steam in late December and a Xbox One port is currently slated for Dec. 12.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds news in 2017 and as long as PUBG Corp. supports PUBG in the years ahead.
