PUBG Corporation has announced that Tencent Games will no longer have the rights to publish PUBG: Mobile in India, a week after India banned the game along with 117 other Chinese-origin apps amidst mounting pressures with China.
“Moving forward, PUBG Corporation will take on all publishing responsibilities within the country,” the company said.
The decision to take over the publishing of the game in India could spell hope that the ban may be revoked. India had recently banned a slew of Chinese-origin apps over security concerns amid mounting border tensions with China, as the armies of both countries are eye-to-eye along several regions of the Line of Actual Control.
Most of the apps banned had been by China’s biggest app developers, like Tencent, ByteDance and Alibaba.
The company said it had been “actively monitoring the situation around the recent bans of PUBG Mobile Nordic Map: Livik and PUBG Mobile Lite in India, and saw an “overwhelming amount of support for the game from the country’s player base”.
“PUBG Corporation fully understand and respects the measures taken by the government as the privacy and security of player data is a top priority for the company. It hopes to work hand-in-hand with the Indian government to find a solution that will allow gamers to once again drop into the battlegrounds while being fully compliant with Indian laws and regulations.”
“In light of recent developments, PUBG Corporation has made the decision to no longer authorize the PUBG MOBILE franchise to Tencent Games in India. Moving forward, PUBG Corporation will take on all publishing responsibilities within the country. As the company explore ways to provide its own PUBG experience for India in the near future, it is committed to doing so by sustaining a localized and healthy gameplay environment for its fans.”
The company pointed out that PUBG: Mobile is the mobile version of PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS (PUBG), an intellectual property owned and developed by PUBG Corporation, a South Korean gaming company. The company is actively engaged in developing and publishing PUBG on multiple platforms, including PUBG MOBILE in select territories, to provide the best player experiences possible.
The company said they hoped to continue engaging with the “passionate player base” in India, and in addition to regular content updates, are exploring different ways of engaging the community in India through region-based activities including eSports and community events.
With around 175 million installs in India, PUBG: Mobile was one of the most-played videogames in the country. However, its ban was welcomed by some who saw it as an opportunity for Indian-developed games to grow their audiences. A possible alternative to PUBG, FAU:G, was announced shortly after the PUBG ban.
