PUBG weather is back, is more dynamic and varied than before

Update: August 21, 2019

In welcome news, as part of the version 4.2 update, weather is coming back to PUBG. Well, Erangel specifically.

Weather effects – that was rain and fog, in their original format – were removed from PUBG in January 2018 because too many players were quitting wet weather rounds as soon as they started. Yes, it is more difficult to play in bad weather – the visibility is worse, and the sound of the rain makes it harder to hear enemies – but that just made bad weather rounds more exciting.

And we’ve missed them. If Fortnite and Apex Legends get by on their brash, zany presentation, PUBG thrives on atmosphere. If you get down to the final few, or if you’re outnumbered and being chased around a building by a squad, PUBG is as tense and dramatic as any horror game, and the combination of drama and difficulty bad weather brings to the game only ramps up the tension.

“With our second update of the season we are bringing dynamic weather conditions to the isle of Erangel,” reads the press release. “Combatants will now be forced to contend with each other while braving the elements such as wind, hail, thunderstorms, rain, and fog. Get a look at the brewing storm in our Patch Report here.”

So not only is PUBG weather back, there’s more of it – with high winds, hail, and thunderstorms in addition to rain and fog – but these conditions will vary dynamically throughout a round. Players won’t just be able to catch a glimpse of fog at the start of a round and chicken (dinner) out.

Grab your brolly. We’ll see you on the battleground.

Original story: January 3, 2018

We reported yesterday on the interview between InvenGlobal and PUBG Corp. CEO Chang Han Kim. No, not Brendan Greene; he’s the inspiration behind and the face of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but he’s not the boss.

Specifically, we focused in on what appeared to be the most interesting detail – that they are aiming for PUBG to release on ‘every platform’ once the Xbox One console exclusivity is over – but on giving the interview a second read, there’s another tasty tidbit that we missed in all that PlayStation/PUBG excitement.

Inven asked why the fog and rain weather conditions seemed to not be appearing in PUBG, and Kim confirmed something that we’d been wondering for a while, but weren’t entirely sure if we were just losing our marbles: the fog and weather conditions have been removed on purpose.

We wondered if perhaps it was just because of the Miramar desert map, that they didn’t want to have rain or fog on such an arid map, and that it was just a question of probability. Perhaps we just weren’t ending up on Erangel with enough frequency to land a rain or fog round. It might just have been simple mathematics, but in reality, it’s a lot more straightforward than that:

The retention of players in fog and rainy was too low and we had to take them out. There are relatively many players who leave the session if they think it’s inconvenient to play, as there’s no penalty for leaving as of now. Of course, we won’t discard them permanently, and we’ll release them once again after a number of studies and tweaks.

So there you have it. People were wussing out of fog and rain games because they found them too difficult, and reloading the lobby until they got favourable conditions. So because there’s no punishment for leaving a game early – like with say, rage quitting in Street Fighter or Pokken Tournament – PUBG Corp. have simply turned them off.

Chang Han Kim wasn’t finished there, though. He had one extra little gem that we’ve been secretly hoping for all along:

We also plan to add a snow map in the future.

Thank you. That was the news we’ve been waiting for.