PUBG quietly changed the sound and forgot to tell everyone

If PUBG sounds like gunfire and so on, there’s something strange about it lately, don’t worry, it’s not your ears that’s the problem.

PUBG Corp. recently dramatically changed the way in-game audio works – and the developers forgot to tell us that.

“Some of you noticed that we changed the way sound works in the latest PUBG update,” said PUBG Corp. said on their steam blog. “First: We should have explained it in the patch note. But people forget to do that, and we ask you to accept this apology.”

PUBG just updated the game in late April and mid-May, but none of them mentioned sound changes.

“Many of you have condemned us for not explicitly stating the changes in the patch notes, and you are right,” PUBG said. “That’s something we’re trying to fix from now on, and parties should continue to let us know if the team forgets something. We can and will do better.”

This change is related to the Head Related Transfer Function (HTRF) plugin, which previously only affected movement, explosions and when running out of ammunition. This means you can tell if the gunfire was fired from your left or right side, but it used to be difficult to tell if the bullet was fired from in front of or behind the character.

PUBG Corp. later posted YouTube clips describing the changes in the sound.

Enemy gunfire from the same height

Before:

After update:

Enemy gunfire from below:

Before:

After update:

Enemy gunfire shot from above

Before:

After update:

The developers say they believe these changes are a “major improvement,” but have also heard of some feedback about “strange” or “garbled” sounds. PUBG Corp. says they plan to add the option to customize the sound in more detail.

“Once again, we would like to apologize for not sharing this change sooner. From here on, we plan to write development letters like this before making any major changes to the game system.”