Krafton is ending development on PUBG spin-off Black Budget nine months after its closed alpha test on Steam.
Black Budget is an extraction shooter built around a time loop, with the goal of having whole teams survive and escape rather than a last-one-standing battle royale. Black Budget held several alpha and community tests throughout the year.
“After reviewing the project’s development status and future direction, we concluded that its current direction would not allow us to deliver an experience players could enjoy over the long term,” Krafton posted to Steam.
“We sincerely thank everyone who took the time to participate in our Closed Alpha tests and share their feedback. PUBG Studios will carry what we learned from development and testing into future projects, continuing to listen to players as we explore new gameplay experiences.”
Black Budget was the second PUBG spin-off to be cancelled this year. In March, Krafton shut down the free-to-play spin-off Blindspot after two months in Early Access.
Krafton previously outlined its plan to expand PUBG Battlegrounds into a “content platform” with “sandbox-oriented UGC that leverages PUBG’s core gunplay, mechanics, and physics engine, consolidating an ecosystem where players can create and share their own content.”
It had said that Black Budget and Blindspot would “test the PUBG IP’s expansion into new genres, while new platform advancements will bring PUBG to the next step for growth.”
Despite the two cancellations, PUBG announced another spin-off at Gamescom in August called PUBG: Ded.Net, a multiplayer shooter with roguelike progression.
Krafton reported record Q2 results, with revenue increasing 94.9% to ₩1.29 trillion ($889.1 million). The company attributed this growth to the continued expansion of the PUBG franchise and the success of Unknown Worlds’ Subnautica 2.
PUBG revenue increased 25% year-over-year, driven by the development of a central gameplay platform and new “cultural collaborations” with other IP and brands.