In what has become a big blow for the PUBG players in India, the mobile gaming software will no longer be available or accessible to anyone in India after the developers had suspended all its services and access in the country and the game won't be available for the existing users in the country from October 30 and the development has come as the sequence of the Indian government's ban on the gaming software last month.
PUBG (Players Unknown Battle Ground) has earned massive popularity in India in a very short span after enjoying a wider reach among the young audiences. PUBG had witnessed a skyrocketing growth in the gaming ecosystem in India as millions of people, particularly, the young generation who later went on to get addicted to the game. The popular game is distributed in India by the Chinese company Tencent Holdings.
The game was launched in India in February 2018 and in two years, PUBG had nearly 33 million users in the country and in parallel to the growth of the game, the nation had also witnessed the rise of demand to ban the gaming applications by citing that it has been dominating the younger generations and spoiling their livelihoods.
The gaming software had faced a big blow from the Indian government as last month, the government had banned 118 Chinese mobile applications including the PUBG Mobile version, Baidu, and TikTok. The action has come when the government was surfaced with the nationwide demand to ban the Chinese apps as the retaliation drive and digital strike against China for intruding into the Indian border in Ladakh, where dozens of Indian soldiers had died as the sequel of the border skirmish between two nuclear-armed neighbors.
The government's order of banning the applications like PUBG, TikTok, UC Browser, Helo, ShareIt, and Cam Scanner had come into immediate effect and these applications weren't available for the new users as PUBG and these applications were taken down both from Google Play Store and Apple iOS store following the order from the Central government.
PUBG Mobile is the mobile version of PUBG, which is intellectual property owned and developed by PUBG Corporation, which is a South Korean gaming company. As the game had earned immediate popularity, the Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings had come into the picture and joined hands with the South Korean company to market and distribute the game in China, India, and other major countries.
However, after the Indian government had banned PUBG, the gaming software was only available for the already existing users in the country, and a month after the ban, PUBG had now terminated all of its services and access from India and the game will no longer be available even for the existing users from October 30. In its statement, the gaming company said that with the view of complying with the interim order of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Tencent Games will terminate all services and access for users in India to PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile lite on October 30.
The company stated that the rights to publish PUBG Mobile in India will be returned to the owner of the PUBG intellectual property. It added, "Protecting user data has always been a top priority and we have always complied with applicable data protection laws and regulations in India. All users' gameplay information is processed in a transparent manner as disclosed in our privacy policy. We deeply regret this outcome and sincerely thank you for your support and love for PUBG Mobile in India".
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