PUBG: Creators Apologize For Recent Undocumented Changes

There is no doubt about it that the developers behind the hit battle royale game, PUBG, have their hands full with make sure the game is in tip-top shape for the third map coming soon. That being said, their latest patch came bearing quite a few significant changes to the online game - some of which weren't documented at all and reportedly impacted the game to noticeable levels.

Immediately players took to the Steam page to voice their concern over the recent audio changes made to the PC version of the title, and the backlash was immediate. In response, Bluehole issued the below apology in addition to a thorough explanation and a promise to do better.

"Some of you have noticed that we made some changes to the way sound works in PUBG's most recent patch. First things first: We should have explained the change in the patch notes. We messed up here, and we hope you'll accept our apology."

They continued with their update by stating, "Many of you have called us out about not being thorough enough about documenting changes in the patch notes, and rightfully so. It's something we're going to try our best to fix going forward, and you guys should absolutely continue to hold us accountable when we miss something. We can and will do better."

Apology in place, the developers then explained what went down with the recent patch and what their plans are to make it right:

"With that said, we'd like to explain what's changed with the game's sound systems. We'll also share how we plan to further improve the systems moving forward. First, the primary audio changes have to do with the sounds other players' gunshots make. The difference is due to some newly implemented functions of the HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) plugin.

Previously, this plug-in only affected sounds related to movement, explosions, and empty cartridges—not opponents' gunshots. You could generally tell whether shots were being fired from your left or right sides, but things were more problematic when trying to differentiate between sounds directly in front of or behind your character. There was also no way to tell whether shots were coming from above or below. Our new implementation of the HRTF plugin fixes both of these issues."

You can hear some of the before and after clips here to see the difference they are referencing, even including the weapon sounds frequently referenced in the comment section. "We think these changes are a big improvement that should help you detect the location of enemies much more effectively than before," Bluehole continued. "But we've also heard some early feedback that some sounds feel a little "weird" or even "garbled."

We're keeping tabs on feedback like this, and we'll keep making updates to the sound system going forward. In addition, we intend to add some options that'll let you customize your sound settings on a more granular level."

They finally closed their open letter stating that they would do better in the future and keep an open flow of communication with their fanbase with all future updates.