India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has announced the ban of 118 mobile applications from China. The list includes PUBG Mobile alongside several other games like Arena of Valor.
Update:
In order to make PUBG Online accessible for Indian players again, PUBG Corporation plans to take publishing responsibility for the game in India. Tencent, the chinese corporation they partnered with to publish the game previsously, lost about $14 billion dollars on the first day of the ban.
PUBG Corporation plans to fully oblige Indian laws and protect the privacy and data of their players. They are working with the Indian government closely to resolve the issues. Since PUBG Mobile was one of the biggest games in India, the ban caused it to lose a big part of it’s playerbase.
PUBG Corporation has made the decision to no longer authorize PUBG MOBILE franchise to Tencent Games in India.
It hopes to work hand-in-hand with the Indian government to find a solution.
Official Statement from @PUBGMOBILE attached
PS: Expecting #PUBGBan to be reversed soon. pic.twitter.com/rxxZ7L61Hx
— Amit Bhawani (@amitbhawani) September 8, 2020
“PUBG Corporation fully understands and respects the measures taken by the government as the privacy and security of player data is a top priority for the company. It hopes to work hand-in-hand with the Indian government to find a solution”, an official statement on the company’s page reads.
The efforts may result in India unbanning the game. That could spark a big boost for the game with a lot of esports tournaments and many players coming back to the newest version of PUBG Mobile.
Original text:
As the political tensions between India and China showed no signs of letting up any time soon an additional ban wave to the intitial ones was a distinct possibility. On September 2 the Indian government has decided to ban an exhaustive list of 118 Chinese apps.
List of 118 mobile Apps from China banned by Govt of India over and above the 59 Apps banned earlier. pic.twitter.com/dVqYYJeAnc
— Nistula Hebbar (@nistula) September 2, 2020
Citing dangers to national security and sovereignty the government targeted applications developed and published by Chinese companies. Not only Games were targeted, payment apps like Alipay or streaming apps like Huya were also banned.
This ban is quite the blow to India’s gaming and esport industry as PUBG Mobile was the game with the highest interest and revenue in the Indian market.
India has banned more Chinese mobile apps including games such as PUBG Mobile and Rise of Kingdoms.
A PUBG Mobile ban is a huge blow to the games industry as it was the #1 title by downloads and revenue in the country.
This is as big as the TikTok ban from June. https://t.co/XjjMwDnFPV
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) September 2, 2020
It remains to be seen if other games like CoD Mobile, which has a Chinese developer but is published by Activision, could end up on the chopping block next.
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