According to the developers, Deston is the tallest, densest 8×8 map in PUBG: Battlegrounds yet. The map features urban settings with tall buildings, rolling hills, plains, and even swamps. The map features four distinct biomes.

• Swampland: The swampland biome sits in Deston’s northen parts. The swampland features dense mangrove forests.
• Central Plains: As its name might imply, the central plains are centrally located plains in Deston. Quoting a similarity to Erangel and Taego, the developers mention that the central plains strive to strike a balance between cover, scenery, and points of interests. It features the Lodge point of interest, which is set to be the biggest building in the game yet.
• Concert District: The concert district features a giant chicken balloon floating in the air, as well as a paintball arena. The concert district is also set to be a future setting for the game’s Team Deathmatch mode.
• Western Highlands: With a focus on promoting sniping, the western highlands feature minimal plants and a broad level of visibilty. The rocks and deserted coastal island will hopefully allow for some cover against DMRs.

Along with the new map, PUBG: Battlegrounds is also getting new movement mechanics and features. The new flagship feature is the Ascender—a motorised pulley that players can use to quickly scale up certain buildings. No special item is needed to use the Ascender, and players can even control its speed.

A new emergency parachute will also be part of a player’s arsenal, automatically deploying if a player finds themselves having trouble with their original parachute while landing on the map. The emergency parachute can also work in tandem with the Ascender, allowing players to slingshot across the map.

The final new feature is the addition of working gas pump stations in the new map. Players can use these stations to refuel their vehicles. The stations can also be destroyed for massive explosions.

Alongside the new map, Deston is also bringing with it one new tactical gear, and a host of new weapons. The new tactical gear is the Blue Chip Detector, which is a close-quarters version of the Spotter Scope. Players can use it to detect the location of opposing players within a certain radius. It has a delay, however, so the locations will not be revealed in real time.

The new weapons coming to PUBG: Battlegrounds in Deston are The Origin 12 slug shotgun, and the MP9 SMG.

The upcoming Sanhok map will feature the original design, featuring the jungle theme, docks, ruins, the quarry, and the signature bootcamp’s lobster-shaped building, while removing the loot truck, decoy grenade, and jammer pack.

Additionally, a new ranked season will be kicking off with the update as well, with every reward except the parachute skin getting removed from the inventory, along with the introduction of ACE32, a 7.62mm low recoil rifle available for all the maps. Furthermore, the tactical pack won’t be able to store other tactical gear such as drones, EMT gear, and spotter scopes.

We’ll keep you posted on all the changes that are dropping into the game once the new patch launches for PC on April 13 and for consoles on April 21, so stay tuned.

In addition to this, other cosmetic items such as NieR-themed parachutes are also available as a part of 5 different bundles. The complete set will cost around 5450 G-Coins, which roughly translates to $50. Other bundles are slightly cheaper, with 2B Costume Set and 9S Costume Set coming at around 2080 and 1500 G-Coins respectively. Suffice to say, fans don’t seem exactly thrilled with this outrageous pricing model.

What makes this even worse is that these skins are a part of a limited-time event, and as such, they are only available for purchase until April 30th. Of course, these predatory monetization practices aren’t exactly a surprise considering that PUBG: Battlegrounds recently went free-to-play following multiple playtests for the same.

Well, it looks like that actually benefitted the game, as PUBG Studios recently shared via a press release that upon going free-to-play, the game experienced its biggest growth in years, at a whopping 486 percent increase in new players. The milestone is being counted for the PC player base, where the game is more popular than its console counterparts. In more detail, the developers mentioned the following:

“In the week following the F2P transition, the game saw a 486% increase in new players, outpacing its 2017 player growth rate. Furthermore, new user growth increased at a higher rate percentage (537%) in specific territories, such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Southeast Asia, and South America. Additionally, the game has seen significant increases in average playtime when compared to the week prior to F2P, with average playtime on PC and consoles increased by 100% week-over-week while PlayStation players recorded a 400% increase in playtime.”

As of writing this article, the game has a 24-hour concurrent player peak of over 515,000 players. It might not be as huge as the all-time peak of 3,257,248 players from back in 2018, but at the same time, it is great to see that the title is having great success in its free-to-play iteration.

Of course, not everything is available free of charge. All players start with a Basic account and can upgrade to Battlegrounds Plus for $12.99. This provides access to Ranked mode along with the ability to create custom matches, access the Career medal tab and receive a 100 percent boost to Survival Mastery XP. You’ll also receive a Plus Transition Commemorative Hat, Bandana and Gloves along with 1,300 G-Coin.

According to the developer (via VGC), locking ranked behind a paywall is “partly aimed at giving additional benefits to those upgrading to Battlegrounds Plus, but the ultimate reason for restricting the use of some major content is to prevent cheaters. In the case of Ranked Mode, fair play is required the most as it is a fierce competition of players competing over Rank Points (RP). If anyone can play in a Ranked match without any restrictions, there are concerns about the possibility of an increase in potential cheaters as well as the possibility of banned players returning to the game easily.

“In addition, in order to prevent actions such as promoting unauthorized programs through creating custom matches, some contents are only available through Battlegrounds Plus. Anti-cheat is more important than ever as PUBG Battlegrounds is now free-to-play.”

It’s worth noting that anyone who purchased the game before it went free-to-play will automatically be upgraded to Battlegrounds Plus. They’ll even receive the “Battle-hardened Legacy” outfit bundle consisting of a corset, jacket, pants, boots and gloves. Stay tuned for more details on how effective the shift to free-to-play will be in the coming months.

With this acquisition, Unknown Worlds is now the sixth major studio under Krafton. CEO CH Kim said, “Unknown Worlds are incredibly skilled and passionate developers with an unparalleled gift for creativity and a proven track record of building successful player-driven worlds. Krafton will spare no effort in helping them. Not only do they enhance our development capabilities, but we share a goal of creating unique experiences for global audiences.”

Unknown Worlds CEO Charlie Cleveland said, “It was immediately apparent how closely Unknown Worlds and Krafton are aligned in the way we think about games and game development. Subnautica and PUBG both started humbly and evolved successfully through constant iteration and feedback. We want to bring new games to the world stage – and with Krafton, we’re a big step closer. We’re truly looking forward to our future together.”

Though Unknown Worlds will be owned by Krafton, it will continue to function independently with its leadership still in place. Updates are still coming for Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero but the studio is also busy developing a “new genre-defining” title that’s planned for an early access launch next year. We’ll have to wait for more details in the meantime.

Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero are both available for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch.