As we reported earlier this month, the Indian government banned several high profile apps with ties to China. This included PUBG Mobile, one of the most popular mobile games in India with three out of ten Indians having it on their phones.
A senior government official speaking to Reuters confirmed that the ban placed on PUBG Mobile will not be lifted any time soon. Interestingly, the official stated a different reason for the ban besides the links to China, the violent nature of the game.
The government official speaking to Reuters was not named, he said that officials were not authorised to speak on the matter. He did go on to say,
“The violent nature of the game has been the cause of many complaints from all quarters. That does not change with the change in ownership rights.”
This is a major blow to PUBG Corp, they dropped the Chinese company Tencent as their publisher in India to avoid the ban. They wanted to distance themselves from the issues cited by the Indian government about privacy and misuse of public data.
PUBG Corp has also been in talks with Reliance Jio, an Indian telecom company, in order to coordinate publishing the game in India to avoid the ban. A PUBG spokeswoman speaking to Reuters said,
“We had initial talks with Jio Platforms to seek for cooperation opportunities, but nothing has been decided yet,”.
PUBG Mobile is one of the largest and most vibrant esports communities in India, the low specs and easy availability has catapulted it to the forefront of Indian esports. There is a major industry built around the game in India with tournaments, teams, sponsors, and partners. The continuation of this ban will widen the already large gap in the Indian esports community.
In our earlier article about this subject, we looked at how the ban has already changed this year’s official tournament structure, what will the effects of a long-term ban on the game have in the future?
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