What Cue Republic needs, from a laptop's own graphics to Ultra, and what it needs from your connection and accounts. The game times your PC the first time it runs and picks its level of detail for you.
Your PC
Find the column that looks most like your PC. Integrated graphics are meant for the Lowest preset; a PC with no graphics chip at all cannot run the game.
Lowest and Low presets
A laptop or an office PC on its own graphicsMedium preset
A gaming laptop or an older desktopHigh and Ultra presets
A desktop with a graphics card of its ownCue Republic is in development, so these may change before release. They are our estimate so far, measured on one PC rather than a range of them. Keep your graphics drivers up to date.
Settings
Online
The career, quick matches, Scotch doubles at one PC, tournaments against the computer, practice, trick shots and the tutorials all play with no connection at all.
Online matches one-on-one or two-on-two, private tables and online tournaments; the daily challenge's world board; keeping a signed-in save in step between PCs; and the error reports the game can send.
Online play is through Steam: you need the game on Steam, a Steam account and the Steam app running. Steam finds your opponents, sends your friends' invitations, and joins the PCs directly, or relays the game when they cannot reach each other.
Each shot travels between the players' PCs as it is played, so a steady connection matters more than a fast one: a cable is better than Wi-Fi, and a busy network shows up as a slow table.
Your place at the table is kept for 60 seconds while the game reconnects by itself, and the match goes on from where it was. Stay away longer and the match ends.
Your name, rating and cue, then each stroke. No analytics and no advertising: what the game sends.
Steam
Cue Republic is coming to Steam Early Access around February 2027, at $12.99, and is sold only there: you will need a Steam account (free to make) and the Steam app. The store page, where you can wishlist it, opens around the end of November.
The free demo can be downloaded from this site now, for Windows, Linux and macOS on Apple silicon, with no account and no Steam app: unpack it and play. It will also be on the Steam store page when that opens.
The demo times your PC and picks its detail the same way the full game does, so it is the surest test of how Cue Republic will run for you. Its saves are its own and do not carry over to the full game.
Your account
The game plays the same without one: make a player by name and your save stays on your PC.
Discord, Google or Steam, in your own browser. Cue Republic never sees your password there, and is not given your email address, friends or picture.
Signed in, one copy of your save is kept on the game's server: your players, career, ratings, statistics, achievements and saved shots. It is sent a few seconds after it changes and fetched when you start the game on another PC.
If two PCs have both moved on, the game shows you both and you choose; whatever is replaced is first kept in a file beside the save.
Its settings: graphics, sound, controls and key bindings. Signing out forgets that PC; deleting the account removes it and its save at once, and your PC's own progress stays.
Your setup
The whole game plays either way. Every control can be rebound, and mouse, stick and stroke sensitivity are yours to set.
Play in a window of any size or full screen (F11).
English, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean: all on-screen text and the subtitles. The commentary is spoken in English.
Free to try
The demo is 8-ball in the Classic Room, with its whole spoken tutorial, a practice table and a computer player, for Windows, Linux and macOS. The full game is coming to Early Access on Steam at $12.99.