On October 29, PUBG Mobile team shared a post on Facebook stating that starting October 30, “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.
PUBG Mobile developers have announced that they will launch a new game called PUBG Mobile India to cater to Indian players. PUBG Mobile was banned back in September by the Indian government and around the same time, PUBG Corporation had announced that it will no longer authorise the PUBG Mobile franchise to Shenzhen-based Tencent Games in India. While the team had announced that it would terminate access for users in India starting October 30, the game is still playable for several people who had it installed on their Android and iOS devices.
The developers have also shared that they will improve in-game content and also customise it to "reflect local needs." These changes include a virtual simulation training ground setting, clothing on new characters, and green hit effects instead of red. It will also add a feature to restrict game time for younger players.
Additionally, PUBG Corporation plans on establishing a local office where it will hire over 100 employees to enhance communications and services with players. "In addition to establishing a local office, the company will look to actively collaborate and leverage local businesses to strengthen its gaming service," the developers added.
Indian fans of the game were largely disappointed with the news of the ban, be it casual gamers who spent an hour a day playing the game or streamers who made careers out of it. As we found with our conversations with Indian streamers, there were cases where they reported loss in revenue and views. In some cases, their fans demanded that they get back to PUBG Mobile instead of playing other games. But there were also cases where viewership for some streamers increased due to other games like Call of Duty: Mobile.
