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PUBG Update Will Deliver Map Selection

Bluehole aims to provide the end-users a choice without making matchmaking tougher for fans of less popular maps.

Chris Jarrard

April 19, 2018 11:35 AM

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Since the arrival of the desert map Miramar with PUBG’s 1.0 release, many players have expressed frustration with the lack of a map selection option. For a variety of reasons, players may prefer one map to the other or may have found themselves on the losing end of the 50/50 map selection coin flip too many times. Either way, PUBG developer Bluehole has heard the fans’ complaints and will be rolling out a new update that adds map selection to the game’s front-end menu.

In tackling the issues around map selection, the development team outline two major problems that had to be addressed:

The first problem: Would adding map selection cause serious increases in matchmaking times for the various servers and modes?

For us, this was the most troubling issue, and it required a lot of discussion and serious research. We analyzed tens of millions of matches and sorted the data by server, mode, and time to make sure map selection wouldn’t break the game for anyone. We wanted to make sure that we could create a solution that worked for every region’s players, even the ones with a naturally low server population.

The second problem: Players in different regions have different preferences and playstyles, so how could we make map selection work for all of them?

To solve this, we couldn’t just rely on one source of feedback (like Reddit). We gathered feedback from all around the world, and what we learned led us to scrap and rework our designs for map selection several times.

Ultimately, we created a version of map selection that we think is unlikely to cause issues for matchmaking. That said, we’ll still have to keep a close eye on it, since it could become problematic as new maps continue to be added.

Bluehole notes that players will select one or more of the maps and the matchmaking system will attempt to place them into their desired location(s). This update will be arriving soon, but no specific dates were given. Like all other PUBG updates, expect to see this one on the public test servers prior to its official launch on the main servers.

Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.