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PUBG has been banned in India for the second time after rebranding to Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).
This Ban has once again stirred up quite an outrage in millions of PUBG fans in India because it came out without any warning in sight.
The Indian Government removed BGMI from both Google Playstore and Apple’s App Store a few days back. This has left gamers in India with so many questions regarding the fate of Esports in this country as PUBG is held hero in the world of BR shooting games.
Two Bans in Two Years
This is not the first time that the Indian government has banned BGMI in the country. In 2020, Indian Officials banned PUBG and 300 other apps and games over national security concerns.
Indian Officials stated that PUBG was banned because the developer (Krafton) was found to be sharing the data with Tencent that’s actually China-based.
Following the ban in 2020, Krafton decided to cut ties with its partner Tencent and relaunched PUBG, rebranding it as a new game called Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).
Krafton managed to get BGMI live on both Playstore and App store in 2021 and as expected, the game amassed millions of players within a very short period of time.
Fast forward to 2022, the same government branch that banned PUBG in 2021 has once again put an indefinite ban on BGMI for apparently the same reasons.
According to a report, BGMI continued to share the data of BGMI players to its servers based in China. This brought back a lot of concerns from Government Officials, which Krafton claimed to have resolved through a new update.
However, it didn’t stop the Indian government from banning BGMI anyways and no one knows for how long. Does this mean, gamers in India won’t be able to play PUBG again?
Well, luckily this time the Indian gamers do have an alternative in the form of PUBG New State, which is still alive and kicking on both platforms, and apparently, the Indian Governments have no plans for banning it too.
What Does this Ban Mean for Esports Industry?
Esports is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world including India. PUBG remains a huge name in this growing industry with a massive potential for gamers to earn millions of dollars in revenue through competitive championships.
This ban could prove to be a major restriction for Indian players to getting worldwide recognition through PUBG in Esports. However, the Government has not yet confirmed for how long the ban would stay but a permanent ban would definitely not be bad for both Indian gamers and the Esports industry in the country.
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