South Korea’s Krafton Inc — rights holders of thePlayerUnknown’s BattleGround (PUBG)game—released a teaser for a new game calledBattlegrounds Mobile Indiaspecially made for the country.
Last September, the Indian government bannedPUBGand 118 other Chinese appsover data security concerns. The IP holding company tried todistance itself from China-based Tencent, the distributors of the game in India, in order to get the ban lifted.
Two months later, Krafton said that it aims to bring the game back in the country in some form. The firm alsopledged to invest $100 millionin the local gaming community.
We don’t know much about the game apart from the fact that it’ll be a Battle Royale game — just likePUBG Mobile. The teaser suggests that the upcoming game could very much look like the banned title. Krafton said in a statement that it’ll have a pre-registration period before the game officially launches in the country.
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According tothe privacy policylisted on the game’s site, the game will follow all local laws regarding data storage. This is probably to avoid any conflict with the government’s insistence on storing all user data in the country.
In an interview withSportsKeeda, a topPUBGcreator revealed yesterday that the new game is expected to be released in June. But take that information with a pinch of salt as there’s no official confirmation yet.
Before it got banned,PUBG Mobilewas one of the most popular games in India with more than 15 million active users. So a lot of players have been eagerly waiting for the title’s return.
Story byIvan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.“Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
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