Dirty Bomb renamed Extraction, will be published by Nexon

You may remember Dirty Bomb from late last year, when I told you all that , "hey, look! Dirty Bomb is the name of a game!" Well now it isn't. What is the name of a game is "Extraction". In fact, it's the name of the same game. Splash Damage have rebranded their first person shooter, announcing its new, arguably blander moniker alongside a partnership with free to play publisher Nexon.

"Fun fact: Extraction was Dirty Bomb's original name and the reason we didn't stick with it for the Closed Alpha was that we weren't sure if we could secure the worldwide trademark for it," explains the Splash Damage blog . "We're confident we can achieve this with Nexon's help, so we've decided to go with the name we've always wanted for the game."

To all intents and purposes, it's exactly the same game. The only two differences are:

  1. It will be a little harder to Google.

  2. Doing so is less likely to flag one of the security services that are watching everything we do.

As for the Nexon deal, Splash Damage explain that Extraction will an on-going service that regularly pushes out updates and new features. "Nexon ranks among the biggest free-to-play forces in the world, having successfully operated a variety of popular online games. They've got a staggering amount of experience designing, developing, running, and supporting free-to-pay games, and they possess the vast infrastructure required for an undertaking of Extraction's scope."

Splash Damage will have a playable build of the Extraction formerly known as Dirty Bomb at PAX, and promise further updates on the game's new teaser site .

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.