PUBG Mobile ban in India could be permanent — Reports

Dimapur, Sept. 24 (EMN): It has been more than three weeks since the Indian government announced a ban on 118 Chinese apps including PUBG Mobile on both the Google Play store and the Apple app store.

A lot of PUBG fans in India are still hoping that the government will eventually lift the ban on PUBG Mobile and re-instate its place in the play store especially after PUBG Corporation announced that it “has made the decision to no longer authorise the PUBG MOBILE franchise to Tencent Games in India.”  

PUBG Corporation, a South Korean gaming company, is the owner of the Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) franchise and it had previously partnered with Tencent Games of China to distribute the mobile version of the game in India. The Indian government had banned the popular mobile game in India along with a host of other mobile apps alleging that these apps were detrimental to the sovereignty, integrity and defence of India owing to their ties with China.

However, a recent report from InsideSport suggests that the ban could well be permanent for the foreseeable future. According to the report, the ministry of electronics and information technology had informed InsideSport that the government is in no hurry to revoke the ban on PUBG Mobile or any other Chinese mobile app.

“There is no discussion within the ministry officially to revoke [a] ban on any of the apps listed in the ban list. We will stay away from making any comment on any specific company or app,” a ministry source told InsideSport.

Speculation about the ban being lifted in the future was further fuelled by a report from Business Today that claimed that PUBG Corporation is in talks with Reliance Jio to distribute the game in India. However, both PUBG Corporation and Reliance Jio have not commented publicly on the validity of the report.

According to figures reported by the Hindustan Times, PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite were two of the most popular mobile games in India with an estimated combined 175 million downloads and 50 million active users in the country.

Although PUBG Corporation has put out an official statement saying that “they will reach out to the government to find a solution,” the Indian government’s stance on the issue seems to be very clear and it is likely that we may not see PUBG Mobile in the store again—at least for some time.