Battle royale goes grunge: there's a new PUBG game and it's set in the '90s

Two women firing guns in a bar
(Image credit: Krafton)

No one is safe from '90s nostalgia, not even battle royale. A new PUBG game was announced today at Gamescom, and it's gone grunge, according to publisher Krafton.

Maybe more interestingly, PUBG: Ded.net is also a roguelite, with progression across runs. Take a peek at the announcement trailer below, set to Ministry's "Jesus Built My Hotrod" (though that's industrial, not grunge) and then come back for some more details.

PUBG DED.NET Announcement Trailer | Gamescom - YouTube PUBG DED.NET Announcement Trailer | Gamescom - YouTube
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"PUBG: DED.NET is a new multiplayer FPS that combines shooter gameplay with roguelite progression across runs, giving players new ways to experiment, adapt and build their own approach in the strange and unpredictable world of 1990’s Cascadia," says publisher Krafton.

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Does that mean its a blend of battle royale and extraction? It sort of sounds that way: "A match lost is never a run wasted. Every drop of blood writes the next chapter—what you scavenge in the world changes you, and that changes how you fight," Krafton says.

"Mix and match dozens of abilities to build your own custom approach to combat. Use car doors as riot shields, cannibalize enemies for health, play dead, or hack payphones to steal money from rivals."

As you might expect, the Steam page also has an AI disclosure, though it's vague: "Our team uses AI tools to help develop some in-game content."

Closed beta test registration is now open if you want to be one of the first players to dive in.

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

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