PUBG Mobile is now Battlegrounds Mobile India, re-launch is back on track

In a fresh bid to re-launch PUBG Mobile in India, parent company KRAFTON has changed the game’s name for the region to ‘Battlegrounds Mobile India’. There is still no word on the date of re-launch, but the company said, on the game’s new website, that there will be pre-registration before the launch.

The South Korean company also assured that privacy and data security is a top priority for them. “KRAFTON will be working with partners, to ensure data protection and security, at each stage. All data collection and storage will be in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations in India and for players here,” the company said in a statement.

Concerns over data privacy and security was one of the reasons cited by Government of India for banning the original PUBG Mobile game in September 2020.

Prior to the ban, PUBG Mobile was the most popular eSports game in India. The country accounted for 180 million of its total 752 million downloads. According to industry experts,eSports prize money in India grew 180% year-on-year (YoY) and PUBG Mobile was the key catalyst for it. The average viewership for a large PUBG tournament in India was more than 2 million before the ban, as per some experts.

According to app analytics company Sensor Tower, PUBG Mobile was the highest grossing game of the year (2020) in India in terms of user spending across Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

To revive the game in Indian eSports community, KRAFTON said, “they will collaborate with partners to build an eSports ecosystem while bringing in-game content regularly, starting with a series of India specific in-game events at launch, which will be announced later.”

Though developed by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of KRAFTON, PUBG Mobile was distributed in India and globally by Chinese gaming giant Tencent Games. After the clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers on Ladakh border in May-June 2020, the relations between the two countries deteriorated.

Government of India retaliated by clamping down on Chinese companies with business operations in India. Over 200 games and apps with direct or indirect Chinese links were banned in a span of months, impacting several major Chinese tech companies including Tencent, ByteDance and Alibaba.

After the ban on PUBG Mobile, KRAFTON revoked Tencent’s rights to distribute or store the game in India and took control over it. The South Korean company tried to launch the game with several India-focused changes and big investment and hiring plans. The game was also renamed to PUBG Mobile India in November, in the anticipation that it will help ease the sanctions on the game.

Despite all their efforts, KRAFTON has not been able to reach an agreement and break the regulatory deadlock with India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY).

Image credit: Krafton