Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably played, seen others playing, or at least heard about PUBG Mobile. Unless you’ve been living under an even bigger rock, you probably know about the PUBG ban implemented in the state of Gujarat, to ensure students don’t spend all their time playing the game, and apparently, to ensure that kids and youngsters don’t get aggressive because of the violence in the game.
Following the ban, Gujarat has seen over 20 arrests related to people playing PUBG Mobile. Three people were arrested in Ahmedabad earlier in March, and 19 people were arrested in Rajkot.
However, Ahmedabad Police has finally lifted the ban on playing the game in the city. Police Commissioner for the city of Ahmedabad, A K Singh, said in a statement that the matter was brought up for review, and it was decided that since the exam-season has ended, the ban was no longer required. He also added that the police took “public reaction into account.”
Meanwhile, Tencent Games has also taken the matter seriously, introducing new ways to ensure people don’t play the game way too much. With a recent update, PUBG Mobile saw the addition of a new 6-hour a day limit on playing the game, and a parental-lock for underage players, neither of which sound very effective, because 6 hours a day on PUBG is still a bit much, and the parental lock feature literally asks the player if they are underage, and they can just simply lie about it. Still, good on Tencent for at least trying.
Either way, if you’re in Ahmedabad, you can now play PUBG Mobile again without worrying about getting arrested for it. The ban was kind of absurd anyway, and while PUBG Mobile isn’t out of hot waters yet (it might still get banned again), it’s good to know the police are at least looking at public reactions on things such as this.
