Playerunknown's Battlegrounds new map now named Sanhok, back in testing this week

The wee new map coming to Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, previously known as Codename: Savage, still needs a few months of work but it's done enough to get a wider testing audience and finally receive a name. Sanhok is the name, developers PUBG Corp have announced, a portmanteau of the Thai word for fun and the Filipino word for chicken. Sanhok is a place inspired by islands around southeast Asia, see. Sanhok will launch another period of beta testing this week and this time it won't require players to sign up for a key, letting everyone who owns the game have a play.

"First, the Thai word for 'fun:' สนุก (pronounced like 'sah-nook')," PUBG Corp explained in yesterday's announcement. "Second, the Filipino (Tagalog) word for 'chicken:' manok (pronounced like 'mah-nok'). Combine the two and you get Codename: Savage's new name: Sanhok (pronounced 'sah-nok')."

So... let's say it translates to Bantercock.

The full launch of Sanhok "is now only a couple of months away", PUBG Corp say. Still a fair way to go, then. But folks who want to check it out sooner--and maybe help shape it with feedback--will be able to have a go when Sanhok returns to testing from Friday at 3am (that's Thursday at 7pm Pacific) until noon on Monday the 14th (4am Pacific).

Going by that ↑ screenshot, they've continued to pull the 4x4km map into maplike shape. That temple was still in the greybox stage in previous tests, just a load of shapes to block it out and see how it plays, but now it's a big ol' temple-y thing.

While earlier Sanhok tests required signing up for the Closed Experimental Server, needing a key, from now on that will be public. The Experimental Server client should pop up in the Steam library of everyone who owns the game.

Do see their two blog posts with nice photos from the research expedition to Thailand.