PUBG devs explain why Rondo is a pivotal shift for Battlegrounds

PUBG: Battlegrounds’ tenth map, Rondo, just released, and we had an opportunity to interview the game’s Director about the brand-new map and more.

It’s been six years since PUBG: Battlegrounds was originally released, and it still sits among the top of the Steam charts, and holds the record for most concurrent players ever. The game has had a plethora of content updates over the years, to keep the experience fresh.

On December 6, the 10th map was released in the form of Rondo on PC, with the console version set to release on December 14, 2023. Dexerto had the chance to sit down with PUBG’s Director and ask a few questions about the new map and plans regarding the game‘s future.

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The inspiration for Rondo

Rondo is the biggest 8×8 map in PUBG so far, featuring diverse locales and a fresh experience. Naturally, we asked the dev team about the main inspiration behind this new map.

“Conceptualising the new map, we wanted to release a visually new one,” they explained. “Which led us to develop a map with an East Asian feel.

“Rondo features a combination of a modern city filled with sophisticated buildings and places with old, traditional beauty, allowing players to employ a wider variety of strategies. We hope our fans across many countries can enjoy the new map.”

Challenges involved

Of course, when a large, open battle royale game like PUBG introduces a new sandpit, it comes with its fair share of challenges. Chief among them is balancing design with performance.

“Adding too many locations would cause performance drops, so we tried hard to pursue empty yet meaningful spaces without leaving them simply empty. We also had a lot of discussions with our level designers regarding the number, location, and placement of villages and unique themed areas.”

Erangel is another 8×8 map in PUBG surrounded by multiple biomes. Comparing these two maps, the director said, “Another 8×8 map Erangel is also surrounded by sea, whereas Rondo consists mostly of land so we decided to add more villages and themed locations to the new map.”

Collaboration with Daniel Wu and Lee Jung-Jae

Unlike previous maps, Rondo lacks much ‘lore’ around its introduction, and the devs explained it simply “wasn’t easy” to devise. Instead, they explained the focus was the collab with Daniel Wu and Lee Jung-Jae.

“The previous PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS maps have their own narratives, but it wasn’t easy for us to incorporate a narrative into Rondo. Although the new map doesn’t have a detailed story, we wanted to focus more on collaborating with global stars like Daniel Wu and Lee Jung-Jae to introduce the map.”

“The story of Team Alpha and Beta played by these two actors was revealed on December 6th, and you can see it here.” (Check out the trailer above!)

A sneak peek into 2024

With the new year fast approaching, we wanted to ask the PUBG team about their plans for 2024. They couldn’t share much with us but did give a hint at what to look forward to.

“PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS marks its 7th anniversary in 2024, and although we can’t delve into specifics, we have a range of exciting content and events in the pipeline to express our gratitude to our dedicated fans.”

We will get to know more about these ‘events’ down the line but considering previous instances, players may be up for some surprises!

Lastly, we wanted to know if we’d get more small-scale maps in the future, like Sanhok or Karakin, the devs said, “While we aim to continue developing new maps and offering new experiences to our players, we also acknowledge the challenges in maintaining the high quality of our service as the map count goes up.

“While no decisions have been finalised, our commitment to providing innovative and new experiences to our players remains unwavering.”