Among the many things concerning humanity’s collective annus horribilis that happened in 2020, the one that hit particularly close to the Indian gaming community was the beloved PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile game. Since the game was associated with Chinese electronics giant Tencent, it joined the likes of other hugely popular apps like TikTok in being flagged as security risks by the Indian government.
Now, with a new developer (South Korean gaming company Krafton) and a complete overhaul of the game, a modified version of PUBG Mobile with India-specific features is coming out soon, with nary a sight of that acronym anywhere in the pre-launch marketing. Krafton, in fact, recently invested in Delhibased NODWIN Gaming, buying a minority stake in the gaming company and platform.
Akshat Rathee, Co-Founder and Managing Director, NODWIN Gaming, said, “Esports will be a key pillar to the growth of sports entertainment in the future. With KRAFTON coming on board, we have an endorsement from the mecca of gaming and esports South Korea, on what we are building from India for the world based on our competence in mobile first markets.” Speaking about the upcoming release, Rathee said, “The announcement of Battlegrounds Mobile India has got everyone super excited.
The gaming community has waited long to hear from KRAFTON Inc. and are eager to get their hands on it. We are all looking forward to the future.” Changhan Kim, CEO of KRAFTON said in a statement, “KRAFTON is excited to partner with NODWIN Gaming to help foster the promising esports ecosystem and engage with our fans and players in India.” He added “Taking the momentum from this partnership, we will explore additional investment opportunities in the region to uphold our commitment and dedication in cultivating the local video game, esports, entertainment, and tech industries.” Despite the original version’s previous popularity with younger teens, according to its privacy policy, Battlegrounds Mobile India will require parental consent for minors to be able to play the game.
The website states that people under 18 years of age will have to enter the mobile number of their parents or guardians in the game to verify parental consent. What impact this will have on gaming tournaments remains to be seen. Parth Chadha, Founder, EWar Games, a leading Indian gaming platform, says, “We had organised some major titles in partnership with Tencent earlier (before PUBG was banned). Now with Battle Royale game making a comeback, we will look forward to doing everything in our capacity to promote the game and take the momentum ahead along with the nation’s gamers and esports ecosystem. Before it was banned, PUBG Mobile used to be one of the most popular games on EWar.
Earlier, we have had over 5,000 teams play PUBG tournaments organised by us and our partners.” Battlegrounds Mobile India has been scrubbed clean of all its previous branding, and is said to have far more sanskaari features than the standard version.
According to insiders, this means avatars will be fully clothed all the time instead of the underwear- wearing animated figures that players usually start the game with. Despite being a literal battleground game in which players hunt each other down with an assortment of deadly weapons, there will reportedly no longer be any blood, with kills being marked with green liquid. Perhaps most vitally, the game will be restricted to India, meaning no international play.
Considering one of the biggest draws of the game was the ability to team up with players from around the world, as well as potentially get to know them as people, this has already caused unfavourable responses from would-be fans. We think we’ll just stick to Words with Friends.
SIDE TRIVIA
The game developer itself said that the game will have exclusive in-game events, outfits, tournaments,
and leagues themed towards make it more fun for Indians. Krafton has stated that there will be pre-registration for Battlegrounds Mobile India before the game is launched.