With extraction shooters dominating the market, the creators of PUBG are preparing their own title, Black Budget. Accused of following fashion, the studio defends itself and affirms that development began well before this new trend, with the ambition of recreating a unique experience.
The battle royale genre reigned supreme over the multiplayer video game industry for many years, completely redefining our gaming habits. Today, this trend is gradually losing steam to give way to another genre, the extraction shooter. These shooting games, which combine survival and loot management, are now attracting all the attention of players and investors, especially with the success of ARC Raiders. It is precisely in this highly competitive context that the developers of PUBG, the same ones who popularized the battle royale on a planetary scale, are preparing their next big project called PUBG: BLACK BUDGET. When the game started to get talked about, many people quickly concluded that the South Korean studio was simply looking to ride the new lucrative trend of the moment. Yet, the creative teams at PUBG Studios would like to clarify the situation publicly and firmly reject this idea of easy commercial opportunism.
A creative vision that precedes the current market trend
During an exclusive interview with MP1ST, Taeseok Jang, director of the PUBG franchise group, took the time to answer many questions regarding the future of the famous license. When asked specifically about the constant pressure of releasing a game in a genre that has suddenly become very popular with the general public, the leader wanted to put things in their true historical context.
It is true that PUBG popularized the battle royale genre and had a significant impact on the video game industry. But when we start a project, our criterion is never to follow trends. Our goal is to see if we can create a new type of entertainment that a large number of players will deeply love.
According to his official statements, Black Budget’s intellectual and technical design began long before mining games began to attract massive mainstream attention. The initial idea came from deep internal consideration of how the fundamental strengths and ongoing tension of PUBG could be reinterpreted within an entirely new competitive gaming structure.
The great challenge of establishing yourself in the face of fierce competition
Taeseok Jang emphatically emphasizes that the development team is primarily focused on the careful integration of the unique experience of their unforgiving universe into this demanding new format. The main goal is to provide a fresh, tactical and genuinely fun adventure, rather than just blindly following the business dynamics of the current market.
However, even if the genesis of this mysterious project dates back several years ago, the general public will inevitably judge the title on its own during its official release. Faced with behemoths already in place, whether Escape from Tarkov, Hunt: Showdown and more recently ARC Raiders and Marathon, it will be complicated to find its place. The marketing campaign will be important, as will the release window, to try to attract as many players as possible. The quality will then have to be there, to trigger a virtuous circle, and establish itself in the video game landscape.
Also read
The new PUBG game is massively attractive in alpha, but already reveals big problems
For the moment, no precise release date has been communicated for this ambitious new title, which is currently in full development exclusively on PC, and which received its first phases of testing a few months ago. We should therefore know more very soon.
