PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has lost a little bit of the spotlight to Epic Games’ Fortnite in recent months, but the battle royale game continues to improve with new free updates. Soon, a new extra-small map will be added to the game, and you can sign up to try it out right now.
To sign up for a chance to play the map early, head to the Codename: Savage official website and link your Steam account. To do this, you must have the game on Steam already and your profile must be public.
The first test is scheduled to begin today, April 2, at 10 p.m. ET, and it will run until 7 a.m. ET on April 5. There will be a second round of testing later, though final dates have not been chosen yet. Codes are limited for the first test, and you might not get access even if you sign up.
The new map is 16 square kilometers and is decidedly more swampy than the previous PUBG maps we’ve seen. PUBG Corporation stresses that the map is still unfinished because the development team wants to work with its players to “drive development of the map in the right direction.” The team is hoping it will deliver a “more intense, fast-paced battle royale experience,” far removed from the slow and strategic pace of the current maps.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ first map, set in Eastern Europe, has pleased the majority of the game’s players, but the same can’t be said for its second map, “Miramar.” Criticized for not being dense enough and having too few vehicles, some players took it upon themselves to actually delete the map from their copy of the game in order to avoid playing it. Hopefully “Savage” will generate a reaction more like the original map than that sophomore effort.
The game recently came to iOS and Android devices as well, under the name PUBG Mobile. It’s a fully functioning port of the PC version with touch controls, and unlike the PC and Xbox One editions, it’s completely free to play. The move to phones hasn’t affected performance much, either, as the game runs at a surprisingly high framerate.
