New PUBG Map Announced as Vikendi Gets Temporarily Removed

There's a new PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds map in the rotation right now with PUBG Corp. announcing Karakin, a 2x2 km map located off the coast of North Africa. This map is temporarily replacing Vikendi, PUBG Corp. said, as the frigid map goes "on vacation" so that it can be revamped more than any other map before it. Karakin is coming to the PC on January 22nd with the map scheduled to come to consoles shortly afterwards, but it's now available on the PC test servers for everyone on that platform to try out.

This new map is like a combination of Miramar's tension and Sanhok's pace, according to the developers. Long-range rifle fights and urban battles are just some of what players will find in the new map.

It's also got a totally new feature that sets it apart from any other PUBG map. It features something called the "Black Zone" which is an area that has a layout which changes every game. This zone "levels buildings into smoking ruins" and destroys different parts of the map at random. A siren and a purple circle on the map along with other indicators alert players to what's about to be destroyed so that they can try and escape, and the changing layout sounds like it'll create some interesting end-game situations where your go-to building isn't there anymore.

Karakin players will also be able to destroy parts of buildings themselves with the new Sticky Bomb that's been added to this map only. It's an explosive device that looks like C4 and can be affixed to different parts of buildings to blow a hole in the wall, roof, or other locations where enemies and loot might be hiding.

One of the reservations some players had about a new map being added was how it'd impact queue times. PUBG Corp. thought of this as well and addressed the problem by introducing "rotating map slots." The first rotation is Vikendi moving out to make room for Karakin with future rotations changing the playlist more.

As for Vikendi, the map is going on hiatus so the developers can work on it.

"Speaking of Vikendi, since we launched the snowy slaughterhouse back in December of 2018, we've received a lot of feedback," PUBG Corp. said. "Performance, spawn balance, and even buildings were all places with room for improvement, some of which we already attempted but we feel we can still do better. That said, while Vikendi is on vacation we'll be going in and doing a bigger revamp of the map than we've previously done. When it's time for it to come back, there will be plenty of new stuff for you to explore and enjoy. Until then, trade in your snowballs for sticky bombs and hot drop into the new hotness!"

PUBG developers previously teased that there'd be new maps in 2020, so while this announcement may have come sooner than anticipated, it wasn't wholly unexpected. Some people thought these teasers also indicated that a map would be removed, an assumption that appears to have been accurate given the rotating map system.