New extraction shooter PUBG Black Budget's first playtest is rapidly picking up steam, and you can join today

New extraction shooter PUBG: Black Budget has the potential to be a big deal. The genre feels like it's picked up a big second wind of late, with Escape From Tarkov 1.0 bringing one of its founding fathers to Steam, and Arc Raiders proving even more popular. But PUBG: Battlegrounds remains a bigger deal still, pulling over twice the daily player peak of Arc Raiders with a consistent count of over half a million users on the Valve platform. Now, the first playtest for Krafton's upcoming extraction FPS game is underway, and there's still time to join (or watch) and discover what it's all about.

PUBG: Black Budget sets you in the shoes of a 'Contractor,' described as "a hardened veteran hired for a classified operation on an island at the edge of the world." More specifically, you're investigating an abandoned research facility that's home to top-secret tech belonging to a black-budget initiative known as 'SAPIENS.' There's one big wrinkle: the island has been swept by a supernatural force called the Anomaly, and it's causing a time loop that forces your expeditions to be brief.

There's more of a focus on exploration and discovery than your average extraction game, therefore, although grabbing gear and crafting materials will certainly benefit your chances. Your time on the vast, 2.5 x 2.5km open world is limited to just 30 minutes at a time, and up to 45 players can be matchmade into a session. So you'll likely need to fight both hostile entities and rival Contractors if you want to get your hands on the most valuable prizes.

Adopting the PUBG circle, the spreading Anomaly will gradually shrink the playable area in different ways each time you visit the island, and challenge will ramp up the longer you're in the loop. You're able to improve your skills and proficiencies as you achieve various goals, and can expand your home base between missions to allow you to craft ever-better equipment. Inventory is persistent, however, and in true extraction fashion, everything you take with you on an expedition is at risk of being lost if you don't make it back out.

The first alpha test has just begun, and is running through this whole weekend, with a second showing to follow next weekend (so don't worry if you can't make it). It's taking place across North America, Europe, and Asia. The focus for now is on the early game systems, pacing of combat, player progression, and overall balance. There's no NDA, however, so you're free to share your experience. Or you can watch someone else to get a taste.

The first PUBG Black Budget alpha playtest runs from Friday December 12 at 1am PST / 4am EST / 9am GMT / 10am CET to Monday December 15 at 12am PST / 3am EST / 8am GMT / 9am CET. The second test will run from Friday December 19 to Monday December 22, with the same opening and closing times. You can apply for a key via the game's Steam store page, and there will also be some handed out as Twitch drops on selected channels.

So far, the concurrent Steam player count has already peaked at 8,000 users, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting into games. That number will likely keep climbing as Krafton opens the doors to more people, so be sure to get your name in the hat if you want to join them.