New maps for battle royal PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds have been vaguely discussed recently, and now we have an official first look at one of them. The game’s creator Brendan Greene tweeted the below screenshots for fans the other day.
I'm at our new @PUBATTLEGROUNDS office in Madison today. The team is working on our desert map. Here's a WIP preview of this new location… pic.twitter.com/ReLbsvwv9A
— PLAYERUNKNOWN (@PLAYERUNKNOWN) July 3, 2017
Judging by the screenshots, the upcoming map features a dry, desert landscape covered in cacti, some rundown buildings, old railroad cars, dirt roads, a car — drivable? — and a bike — rideable?
Greene — the titular PlayerUnknown — released the desert map preview while visiting Bluehole’s new office in Madison, Wisconsin. Speaking to Polygon, Greene said the Madison office team is built around terrain artist Shawn Wiederhoeft, who designed the military baseon Battlegrounds’ original map. He previously worked as an environmental artist for Call of Duty: Ghosts and We Happy Few.
Though these screenshots seem to show an expansive landscape with little cover, you’ll be relieved to know the map is more diverse than that. An early sketch of the map, below, was shared with Game Informer and shows a grid of city streets in the south with slums in the northwest and sand dunes in the northeast.
The new map will be about half the size of Battlegrounds’ original Eastern European setting. It will be four square kilometers and represents an urban environment in Peru. Despite its smaller size, this desert will be a welcome change for players who have been traversing the game’s only map since its March release.
There has been no word yet on a release date, but another map set in the Adriatic is also in the works.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available now on PC, but ports for PS4 and Xbox One are on the way.
