Krafton and PUBG Studios have announced a new game, PUBG: New State, which will be a brand new battle royale title from the makers of PUBG: Mobile.

Yes, it goes straight to mobile, with no plans for a PC version like the original PUBG.

After 8 months of teasing, Krafton have now confirmed the launch date, details about the gameplay, system requirements and a whole lot more. Here's everything you need to know.

PUBG New State release date

  • 11 November 2021 launch
  • Pre-registration open

The PUBG New State release date has been confirmed as 11 November 2021. This a global launch - the time hasn't been confirmed - but we're expecting all regions to get access to the game on that date.

Pre-registration for Android and iOS pre-registrations have been open for some time, with over 50,000,000 registrations across both platforms since the game's announcement earlier in the year.

The New State story

New State is set in the year 2051, giving the chance to leap into the future from the original PUBG Mobile game. It's set very much in the same universe as PUBG Mobile, but this game is actually an evolution of the original Battlegrounds, a chance to see what happens in the future, allowing futuristic game elements while fusing those with traditional elements.

The game is centred around the fictitious town of Troi, located outside of Lansing, Michigan. It's a new map for PUBG players. Krafton has weaved a whole storyline behind the game, where civil society has broken down and divided into factions. That's when the hunters appear and Troi descends into chaos, which is where players find themselves. 

PUBG: New State photo 10
Krafton

The futuristic setting gives the game to chance to exploit a post-apocalyptic environment, a near-future take on the world, so it's all familiar, but different enough to be exciting. That will mean there's access to futuristic vehicles and some future weapons to exploit, but it's not so far in the future that it becomes sci-fi. Instead, New State is supposed to be relatable.

It's designed as a battle royale title, but there will be additional game modes and there will be links to the rest of the PUBG universe, which you'll see coming into the game through updates. There's a roadmap laid out for updates, a season system with tiers and lots to get involved with.

The game is designed for co-op and squad-based play, although you'll also be able to play battle royale solo. It will be available play in first person or third person.

Graphics

A lot is being said about next-gen graphics. Krafton has been keen to stress that it's going to push the limit of mobile gaming, using Global Illumination rendering, for increased realism and intensity. It has also confirmed that it will be compatible with Vulkam, Metal and Open GL APIs.

Krafton has said that it's aiming to be the "most realistic battle royale experience on mobile." The company said that this is an evolution the original Battlefields PC game and the aim is to have gunplay that's more like PC games. That's partly what's meant by going beyond what's been seen on mobile devices before. 

One aspect of this will be the self-destructive environment. Designed to make things more realistic, you'll be able to do things like run over fire hydrants leaving water spraying all over the place, you'll be able to shoot the doors off cars, shoot through some cover and so on.

In pre-launch interviews, Krafton wouldn't confirm frame rates, but did go as far as to say that high frame rates for a smooth game were important, so we'd expect it to play at 120Hz, perhaps even 144Hz for those few devices that support it. There's a lot of talk about optimisation around the game.

A lot of talk has also been put into the reduction of input lag, to make the game as responsive as possible.

System requirements

  • Android: 2GB RAM and up, Galaxy S7 or later
  • iOS: iPhone 6S or later

Despite the talk about pushing the latest graphics, this game is still going to be accessible to lots of gamers. Krafton confirmed that it will be playable on Android devices with 2GB RAM and higher - giving the example of the Samsung Galaxy S7 or later.

For those on iOS, it will be playable on the iPhone 6S and later devices. 

There's been no mention of which devices will offer the best experience - but Krafton has said it will keep up with the latest mobile technologies.

PUBG: New State photo 12
Krafton

Weapons and customisation

  • Future and traditional weapons
  • Regular updates
  • Customisation

There will be a full range of weapons in New State, including modern and more traditional weapons. There's been a lot of talk about gunplay and how the weapons will handle, including things like dynamic recoil based on how you fire those weapons. 

While PUBG Mobile lets you add various elements to weapons, it doesn't go as far as Call of Duty: Mobile's Gunsmith mode which allows a high degree of customisation. 

Every weapon is going to be customisable in New State, with updates bringing new options so you can continue to evolve your favourites. Those changes aren't just cosmetic - they will change the way the weapon behaves too. 

PUBG: New State photo 4
Krafton

Drone store and reinforcements

As this is the future, drones have a bigger part to play in the game. One of the big roles that drones will offer is resupply. You'll be able to loot Drone Credits on the map and then call in a resupply drone to bring you things you want. If you're in a squad, you'll be able to group those credits together to buy bigger items. 

However, your enemies will be able to spot those drones which would lead them right to you - and they can be shot down, meaning someone else can loot your delivery, so you'll need to think tactically about how you use them. 

There will also be things like recon drones, so you can see what's happening somewhere else.

With supplies arriving via drone, that leaves the traditional PUBG flare gun free. Green flares in New State will let you call in reinforcements. A little like Call of Duty Mobile, if a member of your squad is killed, you'd be able to use a flare to bring them back into the game as a reinforcement - they drop back into the map to keep playing. 

That's not the only thing you can to do boost your team - you'll also be able to recruit. This will let you add other players you encounter to your squad. Exactly how this will work isn't quite clear, but if you have a space on your squad, when you take out an opponent, you can recuit them - they then have the choice of fighting with you, or just dying.

PUBG: New State photo 2
Krafton

New vehicles

Some vehicles are recognisable from PUBG:M but with a little more futuristic lighting on them. It seems that 2051 will be filled with blue neon, with electric vehicles confirmed for silent driving, but you're still going to be able to jump into the saddle of a noisy motorbike.

There will be plenty of electric cars and these will give you really fast accelleration - which is what electric cars are known for - but the battery will deplete faster when you're outside the game area, i.e., when you're in the blue zone. 

You'll also have a trunk on cars, so you'll be able to carry additional weapons in cars.

PUBG: New State photo 1
Krafton

Maps

  • Troi
  • Erangel
  • Station
  • Training Ground

There will be four maps at launch, with Troi being the main map. Troi will be an 8x8km map, which means it's the same size as Erangel, so it's big. That's a great start, because big maps make for better games. There are lots of different locations on this map, fusing open space and urban areas, with most places in some sort of decay. 

There are shopping malls, a stadium, bridges, houses and a whole lot more - including 10 landmarks scattered across the map. 

That's not the only map you'll get, however. Because that PUBG classic Erangel is also going to be available. Again, this is an 8x8 map, but it won't be the same as the map in PUBG Mobile - it will be that map 30 year on. That means it will have decayed, it will be in ruins, so you'll be playing on that map with all the damage that those battle royale games have left behind.

Krafton confirmed that this will evolve through future updates to become more of New State map, so we'd expect futuristic updates to come to it over time.

There will also be a map called Station. This is a small, enclosed, map for 4v4 Deathmatch - one of the game modes - very much as you'd expect from multiplayer FPS games. There will be traditional game modes alongside battle royale in New State, but the details have not yet been confirmed.

Finally there will be a training map so you can put weapons to the test.

There will be limited time maps, maps that appear linked to partnerships or collabs - and these will come and go through various updates.

Seasons

  • Pre-season start
  • 8 tier system
  • End of season tournaments

There will be a season system in PUBG New State. There will be a tier system for you to play through, with eight tiers. To start off, everyone will be in a pre-season playing period when the game launches.

Each season will last for 2 months and after that there will be a soft reset where you drop back down the tiers and start again. At the end of the season, those in the top tiers will be able to play in a tournament to win big rewards - although it hasn't been detailed what these rewards will be - we suspect it will be in-game items.