Krafton has officially canceled development on its upcoming extraction shooter, PUBG: Black Budget. The decision comes less than a year after the game was first formally revealed in a November 2023 investor presentation and approximately two years after its initial mention. The game had received a Steam page and a teaser trailer but never launched.
In an update posted on Steam, Krafton stated that "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." The company expressed that this led to the "difficult decision to end development of PUBG: Black Budget" and thanked participants of its closed alpha tests.
The game was envisioned as a first-person PvPvE experience where players would attempt to retrieve secret technology from an island research facility trapped in a time loop. Its gameplay was described as a blend of military shooter action with supernatural elements, drawing comparisons to the TV show Lost. Between matches, players would have been able to upgrade their characters and develop their bases.
The cancellation follows a period where the extraction shooter genre has become increasingly crowded. PUBG: Black Budget began testing around the time Arc Raiders gained traction, and later, Marathon also entered the space. Krafton cited the saturation of the market and potentially a lack of positive user feedback from closed tests as contributing factors in its decision. This is not the first PUBG spin-off to be canceled; PUBG: Blindspot, a game reportedly similar to Rainbow Six Siege, was shut down after only two months in Early Access.
Krafton concluded its statement by noting that "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."