While PUBG Corporation is preparing to return to India very soon, things may not be as easy as the company is thinking. On Thursday, the gaming company announced that the game banned in the country earlier this year will return as PUBG Mobile India soon. While players are excited for the relaunch of PUBG Mobile India, a report by the Times of India suggedted that the offer would likely not work for the Indian government which “remains steadfast on its decision to ban the gaming app in view of the stated concerns”.
This means that the Indian government will first want PUBG Mobile to address the concerns due to which the battle royale game was banned in the country in the month of June this year. At the time of banning the game alongside hundreds of other Chinese applications, the government stated that these apps were threat to national security. Most of these Chinese apps reportedly collected users’ data and shared them with their government. These apps were banned soon after the Galwan valley episode.
To return to India, just a name and operations transformation may not help PUBG Mobile. The battle royale game needs to address the concerns raised by the government of India and fix them first. Notably, so far none of the banned Chinese apps including the very popular TikTok have made a comeback to the Indian market.
On Thursday, PUBG Corp announced that they will bring a host of new tweaks to the PUBG Mobile game and relaunch it as PUBG Mobile India. The company also announced that it has plans to invest around $100 million in the country with parent company KRAFTON. Additionally, the company said it plans to set up an Indian subsidiary and hire 100 local employees across e-sports, business and game development verticals.
PUBG announced that the company is looking forward to “collaborate and leverage local businesses to strengthen its gaming service”.
