TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 1,980
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
The top-down PUBG spinoff hit Steam on February 5, but failed to find a sustainable audience.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
PUBG: Blindspot showed real promise when we took it for a spin in 2024: PC Gamer's Jake Tucker said that "with some polish to the controls and a proper onboarding experience, this could be a genuinely fun, highly accessible tac shooter." But it failed to make much of a splash when it launched into early access in February, and less than two months later Krafton has seen enough.
"Since our last update, the team has been exploring multiple ways to improve the experience and move the game forward," Sequoia Yang of developer Arc Team wrote in a Steam update. "However, 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.
"As a result, PUBG: BLINDSPOT’s Early Access service will come to an end on Monday, March 30."
Unlike its namesake, PUBG: Blindspot was a top-down shooter—a bit like Rainbow Six Siege run through Diablo. Yang said it was "a bold attempt to explore new possibilities within the top-down tactical shooter space," and it was reasonably well received by players: The "mixed" user rating on Steam is just one point under the "mostly positive" rating, and one of the top problems cited in negative reviews is difficulty finding matches because of the dearth of players.
And that's the real issue: Like so many free to play games, PUBG: Blindspot fell into a concurrent player count spiral, with low numbers of players contributing to long matchmaking queues that drive away even more players. Premium games can survive that sort of flat spin, at least for a while, but free to play games that rely on robust audiences making in-game purchases just can't.
The PUBG: Blindspot situation may have been stressed even further by the financial situation at Krafton: The company's revenues grew by 23% in 2025 to more than $2.1 billion, which is undeniably a lot of money, but the more important consideration—profits—declined by 11% over the same period.
And Krafton has been showing some signs of strain. In November 2025, it launched a voluntary resignation program for its employees, offering hefty buyout packages for anyone who agreed to quit. Krafton also imposed a hiring freeze at around the same time. Its recent lawsuit loss-with-a-capital-L...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
PUBG: Blindspot showed real promise when we took it for a spin in 2024: PC Gamer's Jake Tucker said that "with some polish to the controls and a proper onboarding experience, this could be a genuinely fun, highly accessible tac shooter." But it failed to make much of a splash when it launched into early access in February, and less than two months later Krafton has seen enough.
"Since our last update, the team has been exploring multiple ways to improve the experience and move the game forward," Sequoia Yang of developer Arc Team wrote in a Steam update. "However, 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.
"As a result, PUBG: BLINDSPOT’s Early Access service will come to an end on Monday, March 30."
Unlike its namesake, PUBG: Blindspot was a top-down shooter—a bit like Rainbow Six Siege run through Diablo. Yang said it was "a bold attempt to explore new possibilities within the top-down tactical shooter space," and it was reasonably well received by players: The "mixed" user rating on Steam is just one point under the "mostly positive" rating, and one of the top problems cited in negative reviews is difficulty finding matches because of the dearth of players.
And that's the real issue: Like so many free to play games, PUBG: Blindspot fell into a concurrent player count spiral, with low numbers of players contributing to long matchmaking queues that drive away even more players. Premium games can survive that sort of flat spin, at least for a while, but free to play games that rely on robust audiences making in-game purchases just can't.
The PUBG: Blindspot situation may have been stressed even further by the financial situation at Krafton: The company's revenues grew by 23% in 2025 to more than $2.1 billion, which is undeniably a lot of money, but the more important consideration—profits—declined by 11% over the same period.
And Krafton has been showing some signs of strain. In November 2025, it launched a voluntary resignation program for its employees, offering hefty buyout packages for anyone who agreed to quit. Krafton also imposed a hiring freeze at around the same time. Its recent lawsuit loss-with-a-capital-L...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?