Look, let's be honest: KRAFTON is throwing a bit of AI flavour into the mix for 'PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS'. They are launching a beta service for 'Ally Duo', a new arcade mode featuring their 'PUBG Ally' technology. The experiment runs for two weeks, from June 17 to July 1, for players across the globe.

In Ally Duo, you’ll be paired up with an AI companion named Ella on the Sanhok map. It’s a proper two-person team where you’ll need to coordinate movement, loot, and tactics via voice chat. Ella isn't just a bot; KRAFTON calls this new breed of partner a CPC, or 'Co-Playable Character', designed to actually play alongside you.

The tech behind it? It's powered by NVIDIA ACE, using an on-device small language model to make sense of your voice commands and the chaos unfolding on screen. With real-time speech-to-text and text-to-speech, Ella doesn’t just follow a rigid script. Instead, she’s meant to judge your conversations and the game state to react accordingly.

KRAFTON is treating this beta as a playground to gather feedback and polish the tech. The mode supports Korean, Chinese, and English voice interactions. Lee Kang-wook, CAIO at KRAFTON, noted, "We are showcasing a new form of gameplay that players create together with Ella," adding that they are keen to push AI-driven innovation based on what players report back.

Kim Sang-kyun, Head of PUBG Development, added his own bit of optimism, stating, "We expect PUBG Ally to become a tool that content creators can use to craft all sorts of fun scenarios," while promising to keep rolling out fresh modes to keep the PUBG experience feeling lively.

Meanwhile, KRAFTON is keeping busy; they unveiled four 'Raon' multimodal AI models back in April and are clearly doubling down on using these tools to redefine how we play their games.