Krafton shutters free-to-play PUBG spin-off after two months, in line with policy of using Early Access to “quickly validate a game’s potential”

Krafton is shutting down PUBG Blindspot, a free-to-play PC spinoff of its hit PUBG Battlegrounds, after only two months in Early Access. The news comes despite the PUBG franchise powering the firm’s best-ever annual revenue, but is in line with its previously stated policy of using Early Access releases to validate games before committing development resources.

PUBG Blindspot was a top-town tactical shooter which launched into Early Access in January with a promise of monthly updates and close community engagement. The game peaked at 3,251 players shortly after launch, according to SteamDB, but had dwindled to a few hundred in recent weeks despite broadly positive player reception.

“After careful consideration, we have come to the conclusion that we are no longer able to sustainably provide the level of experience we set out to deliver through Early Access,” Arc Team’s Sequioa Yang posted on Steam. “The feedback and support from our players have meant a great deal to the team, and will continue to inform our future development efforts.”

Krafton had previously announced a shift to a “small-team development structure” which would deliver “early or targeted releases, such as Early Access or limited market launches, allowing teams to quickly validate a game’s potential before committing additional resources and scaling successful titles.”

The firm continues to work on PUBG Black Budget, an extraction shooter that was announced in 2022 and completed a closed alpha in December 2025, and 2021 mobile release PUBG New State.

It has previously stated that it plans to expand the PUBG IP “through cultural collaborations and long-term service improvements” alongside new game releases while extending the core PUBG Battlegrounds into a “content platform” with “sandbox-oriented UGC that leverages PUBG’s core gunplay, mechanics, and physics engine, consolidating an ecosystem where players can create and share their own content.”

Krafton recently lost a legal battle with the leaders of its studio Unknown Worlds over the release of Subnautica 2. The final judgement stated that the firm fired the studio leadership in an effort to avoid paying bonuses, after its CEO turned to ChatGPT to find a reason to dismiss them. The publisher said it disagreed with the ruling, which restored ousted CEO Ted Gill to his former position.