It appears the PUBG developers are making changes to the original PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds map. Several compounds have been added across Erangel and fans have quickly voiced their displeasure with the news.
Erangel changes
The iconic Erangel has remained largely untouched since its release alongside PUBG. There have been compounds (buildings) previously added, most notably south of the western bridge connecting Sosnovka and Erangel’s mainland.
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According to the PUBG test server for PC, Bluehole are at the very least experimenting with adding a large amount of compounds throughout the map.
Erangel has achieved cult-status due to its nostalgia, simplicity and open spaces. The addition of these compounds will reduce these open spaces and could damage the map as a whole.
Map highlighting the new compounds (red dots) in PUBG’s Erangel… (Image from: u/bizzfarts)
Response from PUBG players
It seems PUBG fans agree with this sentiment as many have already criticized the idea of altering Erangel.
One element of Erangel that has received criticism, deserved or not, has been the difficulty to accumulate loot, especially in the early stages of a game.
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Consequently, Reddit user “ISCO23” put forward the following sarcastic remark: “Community: “Please PUBG add more loot to Erangel”, PUBG Corp: “Oh I hear they want more loot on Erangel, that means we add more buildings so there is more loot right?“”
Elsewhere, “Siannath” was more blunt saying, “Oh god, please don’t ruin Erangel PUBG Corp.”
These type of comments were plentiful across forum posts suggesting the change wouldn’t be welcomed.
Will Bluehole listen?
It will be interesting to see whether Bluehole will take note of this feedback or push these changes through in a future update.
Erangel is generally considered the best PUBG map and therefore Bluehole are playing a dangerous game by changing it.
At this point the PUBG community are more concerned with stability. These thoughts are amplified across the PUBG console ports whereby stability, even at 30 FPS, is satisfactory at best.