Government Unlikely To Lift Ban on PUBG Because of the Violent Content

• The ban on PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG) is unlikely to be lifted anytime soon, a senior government official confirmed.
• A PUBG spokeswoman confirmed that the gaming company is in talks with Reliance Jio to revive its fortunes in India.
• On September 2, 2020, PUBG was among 118 Chinese-origin mobile applications banned by New Delhi.

The central government is unlikely to revoke a ban on PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), a senior government official confirmed saying that the violent nature of the game has been the cause of many complaints from all quarters.

On September 2, 2020, the Indian government banned the PUBG Mobile and other Chinese apps in India due to the Indian IT Act policy violation.

Just after a week, PUBG severed ties with Chinese company Tencent Games. It also said it was exploring ways to provide gaming experiences to Indian users in the future.

The official, on the condition of anonymity, said PUBG breaking the ties with Tencent Games is not going to change anything.

“The violent nature of the game has been the cause of many complaints from all quarters. That does not change with the change in ownership rights.” the source said. 

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A PUBG spokeswoman confirmed that the gaming company is in talks with Reliance Jio to revive its fortunes in India. In 2019, PUBG partnered with Jio wherein Jio users who register for PUBG Lite get rewards for buying their in-game merchandise.

“We had initial talks with Jio Platforms to seek for cooperation opportunities, but nothing has been decided yet,” the PUBG spokeswoman told Reuters. While Reliance did not respond to a request for comment.

For PUBG, India is its largest market with more than 175 Mn downloads, accounting for almost a quarter of total global downloads, according to Sensor Tower. Since its launch in 2017, it has seen a total of 734 Mn installations from around the world.

While officially New Delhi says it had banned the apps because they collect user data and pose a threat to national security, the move is widely seen as a way to pressure Chinese tech companies following a months-long standoff between India and China along a disputed Himalayan border.

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