Nine months following its closed alpha test, Krafton has decided to discontinue the PUBG spin-off game, Black Budget.

Krafton has decided to halt progress on the PUBG spin-off, Black Budget, only nine months following its closed alpha testing phase on Steam. This game, distinct from a traditional battle royale, featured an extraction-style shooter format grounded in time loops, where teams aimed to survive and evacuate as a collective rather than as individual last survivors. Throughout the year, Black Budget underwent several alpha and community evaluations.

PUBG: Black Budget. Three soldiers in tactical gear stand in a dense, overgrown jungle setting during a rainstorm, facing a large, vine-covered structure. — Image credit: Krafton

"Upon assessing the development progress and the direction of the project, we recognized that the present course would not allow us to provide a long-term enjoyable experience," Krafton stated on Steam. They extended gratitude to all who joined the Closed Alpha tests and contributed feedback, assuring that insights from Black Budget's development and testing will inform future endeavors as they aim to innovate new gaming experiences.

This marks the second time this year that Krafton has discontinued a PUBG spin-off. Earlier in March, the company also terminated the free-to-play spin-off, Blindspot, after only two months in Early Access.

Krafton had earlier shared a strategy to transform PUBG Battlegrounds into a broader "content platform" that would incorporate sandbox-oriented user-generated content. The plan focused on utilizing PUBG's core gameplay elements and tech to form an ecosystem for content creation and sharing.

Even with these two cancellations, a new spin-off titled PUBG: Ded.Net was announced at Gamescom in August. This new entry in the franchise will be a multiplayer shooter featuring roguelike progression elements.

The company reported second-quarter revenues that surged by 94.9% to reach ₩1.29 trillion ($889.1 million), with significant contributions from the thriving PUBG franchise and the success of Unknown Worlds' Subnautica 2. PUBG's revenue experienced a 25% rise year-over-year, buoyed by the development of a central gameplay platform and fresh "cultural collaborations" with various brands and intellectual properties.