Last month, the Indian government banned a total of 118 Chinese apps including popular mobile battle royale game PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite. While we were hoping that the game was about to make a comeback, PUBG Mobile has confirmed that mobile gamers in India will completely lose access to the game from October 30 (today).
The announcement comes through an official post on PUBG Mobile’s Facebook handle. “To comply with the interim order of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology dated September 2, 2020, Tencent Games will terminate all service and access for users in India to PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik and PUBG MOBILE Lite (together, “PUBG Mobile”) on October 30, 2020,” wrote the company.
The post mentions that protecting user data has always been the company’s ‘top priority’ and expressed that it ‘deeply regrets this outcome’. It also went on to thank players for all the support and love the game received over the years.
Although Google and Apple were quick to remove the game from their app stores soon after the government’s ban, PUBG Mobile remained accessible to existing users. Moreover, users could easily sideload updates on Android. That, however, will no longer be the case going forward.
PUBG Mobile states that the right to publish the game in India will be returned to the owner of PUBG’s intellectual property – PUBG Corporation. This doesn’t come as a surprise since PUBG Corporation revoked its partnership with Tencent. Meanwhile, PUBG Corporation is looking for Indian partners including Airtel to resurrect the game in the country. However, there is no clarity on the situation yet.
