The Indian government is set to hit the Chinese hard as it draws up names of 275 more applications that they intend to ban. Among these remains the much controversial application PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).
About PUBG:
Since its release on 19th March 2018, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, commonly known as PUBG has taken the gamers around the globe by storm. With over 10 Crores downloads, there is hardly any teenager in the country who hasn’t tried this game out. Not only teenagers but also several adults and office goers are among the regular members of the battleground.
The objective of the battle royal version of the game is to be the last survivor on an island by killing others and looting them. There are three modes, those being solo, duo (a team of two players), and squad (a team of four players). The mobile version is playable both in TPP (Third Person Perspective) and FPP (First Person Perspective). There are different locations and maps to entertain and engage the players and more modes, get added systematically to keep the players gleeful.
With this vast popularity, it also manages to be one of the “editor’s choices” games in the Google Play store. The four-star rated game brings regular updates and premium gameplay experience to its players which helped it to be fresh and relevant even after two years after its release.
The news of the speculations that the app will get banned comes as news of grievance to a large number of PUBG fans. With regular events, awards and meets the game has grown up its fan base in the country exponentially.
Awards and prizes ranging from hundreds to Lakhs in different competitions organized frequently are keeping people active and tied up. Regular systematic streams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch catapulted many into fame overnight.
Ban speculation:
The game got developed by a South Korean gaming company that goes by the name Bluehole. However, Tencent, a heavyweight Chinese conglomerate holds a decent amount of share of the game. With allegations such as “data sharing with the Chinese Government” surfacing against the application, it has a high risk of being banned from both Google and the Apple app store. The list that the Indian government has drawn up contains 274 more other names, all of whom have links with China. We saw earlier this month the Government banned the much-admired applications like TikTok.
Pakistan PUBG ban:
We also have seen PUBG getting banned from Pakistan on July 1st. The shock hit the battle royal lovers hard in Pakistan also. Numerous fans took up Twitter as a medium to plead to their Prime Minister Imran Khan to get the application upward running again. Hashtags like #ImranKhanPUBGKholo was trending on Pakistan Twitter throughout the month. Although the Islamabad High Court suspended the ban on the application on 26th July, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) says that the application is to be kept ban for the best of the public. It also alleges the game to promote violence among children along with claiming that the game creates addiction and makes people unproductive.
China banned PUBG:
The game is even banned in China, where it was an instant hit. The Chinese Government reasoned that the game has the potential to have a negative impact on youngsters and that the game sidetracked people off their career goals. Subsequently, Tencent introduced a clone application Game of Peace, which reportedly was promoted as a patriotic game so that it would be approved, for the Chinese people to enjoy.
Ban situation in India:
In India also the game has received a fair amount of criticism from different parents, guardians. They too claim that the game is addictive and that the game has psychological impacts on youngsters. This led to many state governments to put a temporary ban on the application.
The main difference that PUBG has, with the already banned and red-flagged applications, is the fact that PUBG is not completely China-based application. The game has been distributed in the Indian market by the aforementioned Chinese conglomerate Tencent. Zili by Xiaomi and AliExpress, a Chinese shopping portal is among the other investors. Alibaba group has come under severe criticism and sensitive, high magnitude allegations have surfaced against them in recent times. Their CEO Jack Ma has also been attained by an Indian court after a wrongful termination case was filed against them by a former employee. With all these suppositions and claims of security violations and data sharing with the Chinese Government, New Delhi has red-flagged the application for now. Now it is to be seen what the future holds for the application, but it is certain that if banned it would send a wave of vexation throughout the country.