Thursday was a big night for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Although the game failed to capture this year’s Game of the Year award, gameplay from PUBG’s long-awaited desert map was finally shown to the world. We even got a release date for Battlegrounds v1.0. And it looks like the tail end of December is going to be awfully busy for PUBG Corporation.
As exciting as it was to see Miramar in motion, we have to imagine most PUBG players were far more excited to learn the desert environment would be added to the game’s test environment on Thursday night. Bluehole and PUBG Corp. also revealed the launch build, featuring a completed Miramar, will hit Steam on Dec. 20. The team followed its Game Awards announcements with a written update on PUBG’s Steam page, along with patch notes for the latest test build and more screenshots of the new vehicles coming to PUBG. The notes also confirm other changes, like bug fixes and new animations, will be part of the release build.
PUBG Corp. says another written update will arrive before launch day, with more on its support plans for early 2018. The studio also confirmed that, like Miramar, all new maps developed for the game will be released for free. And the game’s price won’t increase when PUBG leaves Early Access later this month. The only real “bad” news this week s that we still don’t have a timeline for the smaller map announced earlier this year.
If you’re not interested in helping test Miramar, but still want to get an early look at PUBG’s next map, check out the footage from the Game Awards. Then head down to the comments and let us know what you hope to see added to Battlegrounds in the months following launch.
For more on the future of PUBG revisit Brendan Greene’s thoughts on mod support, parity between the game’s graphics settings and the potential addition of a cinematic camera suite. We also spoke with PUBG Corp. CEO Chang Han Kim about the lack of rocket launchers in PUBG and the growing pains that come with selling a breakout hit.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available in Early Access. The launch build debuts Dec. 20 and a Xbox One port rolls out 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.
