TechCrunch transcribes massively famous battle royale game PUBG Mobile is returning to India after being banned in September 2020.
The PUBG app is ready for immediate access on Google’s Play Store under a new name, Battlegrounds Mobile India, and with fabulous additions to the game itself, like green blood and a new account system.
PUBG Mobile was initially banned alongside hundreds of other apps like TikTok, Share-it, UC Browser, Kwai, Baidu, and many more because of relationships with Chinese companies. In this game’s cause was distinguished video game investor Tencent.
At the point of the ban, PUBG Studio (owned by the larger South Korean company Krafton) declared that it would relaunch in the quarter with new features customized for Indian gamers, including the color change to blood, and raising the game explicitly as a “virtual simulation training ground.”
TechCrunch writes that behind restricted bodily fluids, part of a long tradition of censoring depictions of brutality in games, and reminders that the game isn’t real, Battlegrounds appears to be identical to PUBG Mobile. There’s indeed a way to immediately transfer your account from the older game to the new one.
The notable differences may be less noticeable. The Indian government’s principal justification for the ban was that it focused on where users’ data was forwarded. The idea that it was not pleasant having that data sent to regions outside of India (read: China).
Foremost of its prospective relaunch, PUBG Studio stated it was severing links with Tencent in India and driving the game’s hosting to Microsoft Azure data centers in the country, which may have resolved the topic well before any green blood did.
