And while PUBG is taking an aggressive stance when it comes to development, so to is their biggest competitor Fortnite . Even in the past month, Epic Games has revealed they will support Xbox One cross-platform support , a launch onto mobile platforms , a new 20 person team mode , and Xbox One X optimizati

Today's 2018 roadmap for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is hopefully everything players have been hoping to hear for some time. Certain topics commonly discussed by the community may have been absent from the roadmap, like balance and crates, but those were likely beyond the scope of the roadmap. Also at issue is the lack of a more specific release schedule, perhaps betraying PUBG Corp.'s lack of dedication to these pl

The latest and greatest gaming feud, Bluehole Studios' PUBG and Epic Games' Fortnite , is taking on a new level of competition. The PUBG development team laid out their plans for 2018 and it looks like they are trying to copy some of the more successful elements of what Fortnite brings to the increasingly-competitive battle roy

Content is king, so it should be no surprise that planned additions to the game were the most prominent part of the PUBG roadmap. First up is a brand new 4x4 kilometer map, a quarter of the size of Erangel and Miramar, designed for faster, action-packed rounds. This small map will come to a new Experimental Test Server in April, but a second, standard-sized 8x8 map is also in development for a 2018 release, but is not yet ready to be sh

Finally, PUBG Corp. dedicated itself to a routine schedule for major patches in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds . From here on, major patches are planned to be released on a 2-month schedule, with the first such patch planned for March. Smaller patches and hotfixes will continue to be released as needed, especially as the Experimental Test Server grows in

By shrinking the map down to a 4x4 space as seen below, PUBG News 's games will become much quicker and action-packed as players are confined to more dense locations from the very start. This, in turn, will lead to shorter matches, something that gets near-universal praise in the battle royale ge

Since PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds does sell loot crates - with some players also willing to pay excessive amounts of money for in-game cosmetics - some will also wonder whether PUBG deserves to be included in the pay-to-win deb

Not all content will be entirely new; much of what's planned for 2018 will be reworked content currently in the game, some of which has been long-requested by the PUBG player base. Of special interest are reworked parachuting and unarmed melee combat systems, both of which have been heavily criticized. Even larger is an overhaul of the entire Third Person and First Person mode animation system to increase smoothness and reactiveness, including new animations for switching car seats or entering a vehi

There's more than just two new 2018 maps in the works, though. PUBG Corp. is working on an all-new emote feature, replete with an emote wheel so players can bow, wave, dance, and taunt as necessary mid-game. New vehicles and weapons are in-development, including the FN FAL. And customization options will continue to be added throughout the year, including skins for parachutes and weap

Nonetheless, this latest iteration of Counter-Strike has not been without its issues over the years, and one noticeable problem is the use of item trading. Trading in CS: GO is effectively a mini-economy in its own right, with some players cashing in on earned skins for big payoffs, while there are ongoing concerns over the use of skins as a virtual currency for online gambling. Eventually, Valve decided enough was enough and has implemented changes, with a recently-traded item now stuck in a seven day cool down before it can be moved on ag

The use of item trading in CS:GO has always been something of a shady ground for Valve, and sometimes the grey areas of how it functions have been manipulated and taken advantage of by prominent CS:GO players and YouTubers. As such, it was only a matter of time before Valve acted on the matter, particularly given CS:GO 's place in the larger discussion around how deep loot box problems go in the industry, but the company may have wanted to act a little quicker, and perhaps in a way that didn't cause such a backlash from play

Nominated for six different awards, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild cleaned up at the annual DICE Awards in Las Vegas, scoring four wins in some major categories. In addition to Outstanding Achievement In Game Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Adventure Game of the Year, Breath of the Wild took home the coveted award for Game of the Year, beating out some tough competition in Cuphead , Horizon Zero Dawn , PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds , and fellow Switch title Super Mario Odyss

News comes from the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds development blog , where the studio was hoping to clear the air and create a prioritization list for the community. The most notable change in the works is a brand new island map that is set to be only 4x4km -- likely the biggest play towards the Fortnite audience. This new map will be available on PUBG 's experimental test server starting next mo