PUBG: DED.NET deliberately wants fresh players fighting people who are already monsters

PUBG Studios unveiled DED.NET at Gamescom 2026 as a 60-player PvP FPS directed by Dave Curd. Krafton describes it as a new interpretation of PUBG's survival and competitive identity, with roguelite progression carrying characters beyond a single battle.

A run can survive many matches

Players enter in three-person squads, but one match is only a stage in a larger run. A successful character may keep going through six, eight or potentially ten matches before injuries, defeat or a deliberate exit finally brings that journey to an end.

ROM cartridges found during play can be implanted into the character to unlock new abilities. Those choices gradually push a build toward support, overwatch, close-range aggression or something stranger.

Some ROM effects are familiar upgrades such as faster reloads or longer dives. PUBG Studios has also discussed abilities that let players crawl like snakes, turn into dangerous dolls or rip a door from a vehicle and carry it as an improvised shield.

Power and damage accumulate together

A longer run makes a character more capable, but it also gives injuries time to pile up.

Those injuries have mechanical consequences. Smoke may trigger coughing, weapon handling can become less reliable, and particular conditions can make specific terrain increasingly dangerous.

That creates a decision that ordinary battle royale rarely asks. A strong build may be worth preserving for another match, but carrying an increasingly damaged body forward can eventually become worse than starting over.

Fairness is not the design target

DED.NET also allows characters at different points in their runs to meet. Someone entering Match One can encounter a player who has already survived several rounds and accumulated a much stronger set of abilities.

Curd has described that asymmetry as part of the point rather than a problem waiting to be removed. PUBG Studios wants encounters where the odds are visibly uneven but can still collapse because of positioning, improvisation or one bad decision.

That is a difficult competitive line to walk. Too much persistence and new characters become target practice. Too little and the roguelite structure loses most of its meaning.

Cascadia changes from match to match

DED.NET takes place in 1996 in Cascadia, a fictional Pacific Northwest region built around mountains, forests, abandoned towns and unusual points of interest.

The main play space covers roughly five by five kilometers, but each match begins inside a smaller section measuring around 2.5 by 2.5 kilometers. Players therefore do not necessarily enter the same corner of the map every time.

The circle becomes less predictable later in a match as well. Rather than only shrinking, it can begin moving across the environment after several phases.

PUBG Studios is emphasizing stronger verticality than classic Battlegrounds, including cliffs and dense terrain intended to create more varied approaches to cover.

1996 is supposed to infect the mechanics as well as the art

The setting uses a distorted version of 1990s America, drawing on early internet culture, sensational television and the decade's particular strain of technological paranoia.

Its competition is framed as a lethal reality show, while locations with names such as Cryptid Cove and Cult Church push the game toward a much stranger identity than PUBG's comparatively restrained battlegrounds.

Console players get the first tests

PUBG Studios is building DED.NET with a console-first approach. Upcoming closed testing will focus on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Krafton has already opened registration.

A PC version is also planned. The studio says mouse-and-keyboard implementation and PC-specific optimization are among the areas it will address as development continues.

There is currently no release date or announced price.

DED.NET still wants the old PUBG sensation of surviving an encounter that should have gone badly. The difference is that the next opponent may arrive with an entire history of previous matches already wired into their brain.