Popular smartphone battle royale game, PUBG Mobile was recently banned by the Indian government. The game has since been removed from both the Play Store and the App Store. Now, in a sad turn of events, a 21 year old has reportedly committed suicide after not being able to play the game.
Reports coming out of West Bengal, where the victim hails from, say that the ITI student was found hanging in his apartment in Purba Lalpur. India TV reports that the victim went into his room after having breakfast on Friday morning. However, when his mother tried to call him for lunch later that day, there was no answer and his room was locked from inside. “After repeated bangings when he did not open the door, I called the neighbors. They broke into the room and found him hanging from the ceiling fan.”
While the police have filed a case of unnatural death, his mother claims that he was frustrated due to his inability to play the game any more. “He would play it at night. I think he died by suicide as he was not being able to play PUBG,” she said.
This is not the first case of PUBG Mobile related deaths. There have been many cases of PUBG players committing suicide or harming members of their families, along with multiple cases of players spending an inordinate amount of money buying cosmetic upgrades within the game.
For the unaware, PUBG Mobile, along with 117 other apps, was recently banned by the Indian government on the grounds that it was “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India, Security of State and Public Order: Govt of India.” Following the ban, Indian developer nCore games has announced a new game ‘FAU-G’ which is expected to be released late next month. Meanwhile, as of this writing, PUBG Mobile remains playable for people who have the game installed on their phones.
