PUBG map selection scaled back following Sanhok testing

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds introduced map selection in April, which allowed players to choose between its Erangel and Miramar arenas for the first time. "We'll still have to keep a close eye on it," said developer PUBG Corp at the time, "since it could become problematic as new maps continue to be added."

Following its fourth round of testing, the developer says it will scale back map selection options when Sanhok lands later this month.

"It’s now become clear to us that these concerns were justified, and we’ve decided that we can’t support individual map selection for more than two maps," says the dev in this Steam Community update. "This is because map selection creates an essentially exponential increase in the number of total separate queues when combined with other queue options like party size and perspective.

"That means the matchmaking pool gets split into many small sections, making it nearly impossible to put together a match in at least some of those queues."

PUBG Corp vows to make Sanhok as accessible as possible—Sanhok proves that solo PUBG plays best on a small map, after all—but says Miramar and Erangel will again return to the same queue. This means players can no longer choose between the latter, and will instead be allocated at random should they select this queue.

"Choosing both queues means you’ll randomly be dropped into one of the three maps currently in the game," the post adds.

Read more on the above in this direction. As Chris reported from E3, PUBG's winter map will be somewhere between Miramar and Sanhok in size.