The PUBG: Battlegrounds franchise is about to expand with the debut of a new extraction shooter, PUBG: Black Budget. Krafton has also announced that PUBG Studios will have a closed alpha test for Black Budget in December on PC.

PUBG: Black Budget is introducing more sci-fi and fantasy elements by setting the action on Coli, an island that is locked in a repeating time loop while under threat from the Anomaly, a supernatural phenomenon of unknown origin. The game will also place an emphasis on "exploration and discovery" instead of relying on non-stop combat. Players are tasked with finding "top-secret technology" while attempting to learn more about SAPIENS, a black-budget initiative. The matches will will consist of PvPvE battles.

Promo art for PUBG: Black Budget.Gallery

Info about signing up for the closed alpha test is already on Steam, and the event will last for six days spread across two weeks. The first test period will be held from December 12-14, with the second following on December 19-21.

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Europe's law enforcement agency is taking a closer look at online multiplayer games and gaming-adjacent platforms as the fears that criminals could be grooming, manipulating, and weaponizing children to commit violent crimes rise sharply in European society.

Europol (or the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation) partnered with eight countries to identify and remove thousands of incidents of hateful rhetoric shared on gaming and gaming-related platforms. Conducted on November 13 and in partnership with Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, Europol's Referral Action Day program reportedly uncovered around 5,408 links to jihadist content, 1,070 links to violent right-wing extremist and terrorist content, and 105 links to racist and xenophobic content on a variety of unnamed gaming platforms.

Europol's executive director, Catherine De Bolle, spoke to Politico on November 21 about her fears following the findings by that joint committee dubbed the European Union Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU). De Bolle said that, through these gaming platforms, criminal networks are recruiting children to engage in torture and murder.

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In February 2023, Wizards of the Coast closed an internal game development studio, and with it cancelled multiple unannounced titles, one of them being Whimpact!, a "Pokemon meets Fall Guys" online multiplayer game. Rather than let it die, Leah Hoyer, who was at the time VP of creative for WotC, opened her own studio called Level Headed Games, acquired the rights to Whimpact!, and continued development--and it's set to release in early access soon.

Whimpact! drops players into the world of Whims, cute little creatures that pass along magical powers to those who collect and care for them. The more they're cared for, the stronger those powers will be. Up to eight players will be able to join together in co-op arena-style gameplay as they collect Whims, gather mystical energy called Starcane, and navigate obstacles while fighting hordes of robotic invaders trying to steal the energy for themselves.

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There are seven different types of Whims to collect, each with six different color variants. The power each Whim gives the player will depend on its color, with powers including increased speed, increased strength, high jumping ability, longer jumping ability, and more. Players will be able to mix and match powers, including swapping Whims on the fly, during a match as well.

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Last year, indie game publisher Humble Games went through what it called a restructuring, a process that resulted in mass layoffs. Not only were various staff members affected, but also several games under the publisher, including Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus. Developed by the small team at Squid Shock Studios, the colorful platformer inspired by Japanese folklore would turn out to be the final title published by the in-house team at Humble Games.

Fast-forward to November 2025, and Squid Shock Games is still hard at work on Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus. The team has just released the free Tanuki Kabuki update for the game, a major content drop that adds new post-game challenges, gameplay options, and collectibles to the game, with one of the highlights being a Kabuki-style Boss Rush mode where players battle in front of an audience that reacts to each clash. A new Gauntlet Mode has also been added, and this is a curated selection of challenges that also features customizable difficulty options.

Getting here wasn't easy for Squid Shock Games, as following the restructuring of Humble, the team had to fill multiple roles that the publisher had previously handled. We spoke to creative director Chris Stair about how the studio bounced back, was forced to adapt at the 11th hour, and the lessons learned from this ordeal.

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