PUBG, which was banned by the Indian government last week, among 117 other apps, has dropped Tencent — its Chinese publisher in India — in an attempt to recover its position in the Indian app market.
PUBG is one of the most popular FPS games worldwide and is fast coming up in the world of Esports with tournaments over the past few years. The game by South Korean publisher PUBG Corporation enjoyed a significant chunk of its players — around 50 million — from India until the ban.
In order to get on the good side of both the GOI as well as players who are enraged by its Chinese ties, PUBG Corporation has announced that Tencent will no longer publish and distribute the game in India. The South Korean game developer will themselves take the responsibility of publishing PUBG in India.
“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 that will allow gamers to once again drop into the battlegrounds while being fully compliant with Indian laws and regulations,” PUBG Corporation said in a statement.
While new players can not join PUBG as it has been removed from the Play Store as well as App Store in India, those who had it installed at the time of the ban are still able to access the game, albeit on servers based out of other countries. However, they won’t be able to directly source updates for the game from the official app stores.
“In light of recent developments, PUBG Corporation has made the decision to no longer authorize the PUBG Mobile franchise to Tencent Games in India. As 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 localized and healthy gameplay environment for its fans.
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