PUBG’s extraction shooter spin-off, Black Budget, is finally going to be playable next month

You’d be forgiven for not remembering PUBG: Black Budget, the extraction off-shoot of the original battle royale shooter, PUBG. Black Budget has been sort of floating around the internet for months, but Krafton never really committed to revealing core details about the game, or when players will actually get to play it.

This changes today, as the publisher – along with the game’s developer, PUBG Studios, have finally lifted the lid off the upcoming shooter.

Black Budget is described as a “tactical” extraction shooter. Squads of players infiltrate a mysterious island trapped in a time loop. There’s a bit of a STALKER element here with anomalies and various, unpredictable environmental shifts.

Coli, the island in question, hides a research facility that holds secrets and artefacts, which is what players will be attempting to extract. This is very much a PvPvE shooter, though PUBG Studios says the focus will be on exploration and discovery, rather than constant combat.

The game’s first set of closed alpha tests is set for December. The first takes place December 12-14, and another is scheduled for December 19-21. That’s six days across two weeks, with the test only being available on PC. Both sessions will be open to players in North America, Europe, and Asia.

As it usually works with these sorts of tets on Steam, the game’s Steam page has a link where you can request access. If granted, you’ll be able to find the closed alpha in your library and download it when the time comes.

Though this is a closed test, Krafton confirmed that players will be able to capture and livestream their gameplay. In fact, watching content creators might be how you get access, as Black Budget is going to have a Twitch Drops event running alongside those sessions.

When I played Arc Raiders prior to its launch, I likened its tense and uncertain atmosphere to that of the early days of PUBG, so it’s going to be very interesting to see what actual PUBG does with the extraction shooter premise.

So far, it sounds like it’s going to be doing its own thing, leaning more into the adventure side of the subgenre, but we’ll have to see how it all shakes out when the tests start. Indeed, the BR-like constantly shrinking circle sounds like it could be a game-changing twist.