In the last couple of months, ever since the Galwan Valley incident which saw China kill 20 Indian soldiers, the Indian Government decided to do a ‘Digital Surgical Strike’ on China by banning more than 100 apps that is owned or developed by organisations with a Chinese background or ties to the country, citing data privacy and security issues. While this may have pleased certain people, there was a large section of the youth who were unhappy. What was the reason? The ban also saw their favorite game PUBG (Player Unknowns Battle Ground) also been banned. The game, that has seen millions of players getting addicted, faced an uncertain future with PUBG Mobile and PUBG MObile Lite also not functioning recently. However, all that is going to change with a blockbuster development and announcement.
According to reports, on October 30, Tencent stopped its services to the PUBG mobile servers and handed the PUBG Mobile Indian IP Rights back to Bluehole (Krafton Inc). Bluehole recently merged with PUBG Corp totally. Tencent also closed down their PUBG Mobile operations in India. For fans of the game, this Diwali could be a blockbuster as PUBG could make an announcement for the game’s relaunch in India as the festival season nears in order to capitalise on the massive marketing campaign surge at that time.
What does this mean?
With Tencent out of the way, the presence of Chinese companies in PUBG, which is essentially South Korean is now out of the window. According to reports in TechCrunch, the South Korean gaming company is in talks with cloud service providers to store game data of Indian gamers. PUBG could return to India before the end of this year in mobile.
In a statement released by PUBG, it said PUBG Corp. have assumed the full control of publishing rights of their title in India and will work in “exploring different ways to engage its community in India through various region-based activities, including esports and community events. The inclusion of the Esports clause is massive as this could open the door for the inclusion of the Korean version of PUBG Mobile.
With players not able to participate in PUBG Multi-Player Levels (PMPL), this move by the year-end is a ‘game-changer’ in more ways than one.
