Dismayed by the loss of a large chunk of the user base, coupled with revenue loss, PUBG Corporation has expressed its willingness to make amends, seek solutions and become ‘complaint’ with Indian laws and regulations.
On September 7, South Korea based PUBG Corporation in a blog offered insights into how the company is planning to convince the Indian government to reverse the ban on the game. The company said, “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.”
Chinese Tencent Games removed from publishing PUBG in India
In a big announcement, PUBG stated that the Chinese Tencent Games will no longer be authorised to run the franchise in India and that it will be responsible for both the development and the publishing of the popular game. “In light of recent developments, PUBG Corporation has made the decision to no longer authorize the PUBG MOBILE franchise to Tencent Games in India. Moving forward, PUBG Corporation will take on all publishing responsibilities within the country… The company is actively engaged in developing and publishing PUBG on multiple platforms, including PUBG MOBILE in select territories, to provide the best player experiences possible.”
PUBG Corporation thanks Indian fans
Thanking the Indian fans for their passion and enthusiasm, PUBG said, “PUBG Corporation is actively monitoring the situation around the recent bans of PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik and PUBG MOBILE Lite in India. It has seen an overwhelming amount of support for the game from the country’s player base and would like to thank the community for their passion and enthusiasm.” The company further emphasised, “The company explores ways to provide its own PUBG experience for India in the near future, it is committed to doing so by sustaining a localised and healthy gameplay environment for its fans.”
Tencent Games suffers loss of billions
China’s gaming and social media giant Tencent’s shares crashed by more than 2 percent on Thursday after India banned its popular gaming app PUBG along with 117 other mobile apps. The market value of this drop is estimated to be around USD 14 Billion in just a day. Tencent also has investments in the news and entertainment platform Newsdog, camera app YouCam and e-commerce platform Shein. All of these apps are now banned in India. PUBG was one of the most popular gaming apps. India alone contributed almost 175 million installs to date, which is almost 24 percent of its total installs worldwide. PUBG had over 50 million active users in India.
India bans 118 ‘malicious’ Chinese apps including Tencent owned PUBG
Invoking its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India decided to block 118 mobile apps, on September 2. This bold move by the Indian government came amidst the heightened tensions along the Line of Actual Control after the Chinese troops were found surreptitiously intruding into Indian territory in the southern bank of Pangong Tso lake on the intervening night of August 29 and 30. The Indian Army had outfoxed the Chinese manoeuvres and repelled the Chinese incursion.
