As teased by Brendan Greene earlier this month, PUBG's latest monthly update promises first-person servers, an FOV slider for first-person view and a new rifle. As a result of "complications with a [recent] client crash bug", these features won't be implemented till August 3 (which could mean next month sees two monthly updates), however in-game skins designed to "further customize your character" won't launch this side of Early Access.
"We would like to provide more content as well as test the basic crate and key system we want to implement in the final version of the game," so reads a Steam Community update post. As such, on August 3, Thursday of next week, Bluehole will launch three new crates.
The developer continues: "All three crates will contain items inspired by the Battle Royale movie, some of which you may have seen in our older artworks. The first and second crates, named the Wanderer Crate and the Survivor Crate, will be free to open. Each of these crates will include one set of the themed clothing, on top of other cosmetic items. The third crate named the Gamescom Invitational Crate will have the most diverse pool of themed clothing."
Speaking to that last point, a group of the "best Battlegrounds content creators" are set to be called up to run daily events at this year's Gamescom conference in Cologne. The Gamescom PUBG Invitational marks the game's first ever offline event of this kind that will see attendees compete in daily qualifiers.
As for how this relates to the aforementioned crate and key testing, Bluehole adds: "We have implemented a very basic key and crate system for this test. You can use your Battle Points (BP) to buy the crate on the Rewards page. While the Wanderer Crate and the Survivor Crate will be free to open, the Gamescom Invitational Crate can be opened with a key which you can buy for $2.50 each.
"Proceeds from the sale of the keys to open the Gamescom Invitational Crate will be used: to provide funds needed to organize the event, to provide a prize pool for the invitational winners, to support a selection of charities."
Bluehole notes that once Gamescom wraps up on August 27, the Invitational Crate will no longer be available.
The following teaser images are dubbed "movie inspired cosmetic items":
