The spin-off to the battle royale veteran Player’s Unknown Battlegrounds is still in its infancy, but with a little luck, you’ll be able to try it out as early as December.
Extraction shooters are currently experiencing a renaissance: Arc Raiders is dominating all kinds of rankings, Escape from Tarkov has finally been released on Steam after several years with version 1.0, and a spin-off of PUBG is currently in development.
You may be able to play the latter game, called PUBG: Black Budget, as early as December. That’s when the first closed alpha of the extraction survival shooter will launch.
How to play Black Budget
To participate in the closed alpha, you must request access to the playtest on the Steam page for PUBG: Black Budget . Whether you are accepted is a matter of luck.
Alternatively, you can get access via Twitch Drop. However, this only works if the alpha is already running and you are watching a corresponding stream.
When does the closed alpha start?
The playtest will be divided into two weekend phases. The first play session will run from December 12 to 14, and the second will run the following weekend, from December 19 to 21.
The Alpha will focus on combat pacing, extraction balance, player progression, and general early game systems. Black Budget is still a long way from release, so there may well be bugs and glitches – typical for an Alpha.
In Black Budget, you play a contractor who must recover secret technology from an abandoned research facility on an island. Of course, the place isn’t completely deserted, and PvPvE battles await you. In addition, the entire island is caught in a time loop – how this will affect gameplay is still unknown.
PUBG: Black Budget does not yet have a fixed release date, and there isn’t even a trailer yet. However, there will be plenty of video material available from the alpha stage onwards, as all content is NDA-free and can therefore be freely streamed and shared.
