{"id":10364,"date":"2022-07-30T08:17:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T08:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/?p=10364"},"modified":"2023-03-26T16:09:44","modified_gmt":"2023-03-26T16:09:44","slug":"india-blocks-kraftons-battle-royale-game-bgmi-two-years-after-pubg-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/?p=10364","title":{"rendered":"India blocks Krafton\u2019s battle-royale game BGMI two years after PUBG ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Google has pulled the popular battle royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India, more popularly known as BGMI, from its Play Store in India after a government order, a year after developer Krafton launched the app\u00a0following a ban on its other similar title PUBG\u00a0in the South Asian market. The BGMI game has also been delisted from Apple\u2019s App Store in the country.<\/p>\n

The Android-maker confirmed the development shortly after publication of the story.\u00a0\u201cOn receipt of the order, following established process, we have notified the affected developer and have blocked access to the app that remained available on the Play Store in India,\u201d a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

The app was delisted by Google from the Play Store on Thursday evening, and Krafton itself delisted the app from the Apple App Store shortly afterwards, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told TechCrunch.\u00a0The iPhone-maker didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A Krafton spokesperson acknowledged the delisting and said the company was seeking clarification. Shares of Krafton tumbled over 9% on Friday, until partial recovery.<\/p>\n

The development follows a growing tension between India and China, two nuclear-armed neighboring nations that have been especially at odds since deadly skirmishes along the Himalayan border in 2020. India has since reacted to the move by banning over 300 China-linked apps including PUBG and TikTok, both of which counted India as their largest overseas market by users.<\/p>\n

Of the hundreds of apps that New Delhi has banned in the country, Krafton\u2019s PUBG was the only title that made a return \u2014 though\u00a0with a completely revamped avatar.<\/p>\n

Krafton said it had\u00a0cut ties with its publishing partner Tencent, which is also a major investor in the firm, and\u00a0pledged to invest $100 million\u00a0in India\u2019s gaming ecosystem. Krafton \u2014 which has backed a number of Indian startups including Nodwin Gaming, Loco, Pratilipi and Kuku FM in the past one and a half years \u2014 told TechCrunch earlier this week that it estimated that its investment in India will touch about $140 million by next month.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The South Korean-headquartered firm said earlier this week that\u00a0over 100 million users had signed up for the game in India\u00a0in the past one year since launch. According to Sensor Tower, Battlegrounds Mobile India had amassed over 16.5 million monthly active users in the country.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It was unclear why the Indian government had ordered to block Battlegrounds Mobile India. New Delhi has cited national security concerns when banning other apps. (Reuters reported Friday that India has banned BGMI under section 69A of local IT law.)<\/p>\n

Last month, a local media report \u2014 whose authenticity has been questioned by many \u2014 claimed that a child had killed his mother under the influence of the game. The report gained wide popularity on social media and reached the nation\u2019s parliament this month. India\u2019s Junior IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said last week that law enforcement agencies were investigating the subject.<\/p>\n

Indian authorities have raided the local offices of Chinese phonemakers\u00a0Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo in recent months\u00a0and levelled charges of tax fraud against them. China\u2019s embassy in India\u00a0criticized Indian authorities earlier this month\u00a0for \u201cfrequent investigations\u201d into the local units of the phonemakers and warned that such moves \u201cimpede the improvement of [the] business environment\u201d in India and \u201cchills the confidence and willingness\u201d of other foreign nation\u2019s businesses to invest and operate in the South Asian nation.<\/p>\n

Krafton has repeatedly stated that BGMI and PUBG are different games and said the firm had put in place safeguards \u2014 such as enforcing a time limit on the usage of its games, login authentication \u2014 to address any misuse of its titles.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe game is extremely popular, and these issues come with the territory. We don\u2019t know the details of the fraud and how it was committed, but these are extreme cases. We constantly work towards securing a safe gameplay experience for users,\u201d Krafton\u2019s India CEO Sean Hyunil Sohn told TechCrunch earlier this week.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe government does not intervene in which apps can function and which cannot. They intervene in digital security and privacy concerns, and BGMI complies with all guidelines. MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has also noted that PUBG and BGMI are different games,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Hyunil Sohn said the company was open to investing an additional $100 million or more into the Indian gaming ecosystem this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google has pulled the popular battle royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India, more popularly known as BGMI, from its Play Store in India after a government order, a year after developer Krafton launched the app\u00a0following a ban on its other similar title PUBG\u00a0in the South Asian market. The BGMI game has also been delisted from Apple\u2019s … Continue reading India blocks Krafton\u2019s battle-royale game BGMI two years after PUBG ban<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15061,"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10364\/revisions\/15061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poplinks.sbs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}