Despite ban, PUBG thrives in various avatars

Citing threat to Indian security and breach of laws governing data secrecy, the Central government had banned PUBG, a game created by a Korean company with shares owned by a Chinese esports company. Despite the ban, PUBG continued to flourish in India as gamers continued to play different versions of the game.

After PUBG mobile (global version) was launched in 2018, to cater to the needs of specific countries, different versions, including Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese versions (Game for Peace) were launched. While the global version of the game was banned in India, other versions continued to be played.

“There is not much difference between the versions. For instance players of the Korean and Vietnamese versions connect with the global version and despite the ban, players could continue with the game”, said Geerthigan Saravanan, a medico from Madurai.

Recently PUBG launched the same game in India with a completely new name- BattleGrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and downloads have crossed the 60 million mark in India. “There is no difference between PUBG and BGMI. The names of the maps, guns, controls and other features are the same. PUBG continues as BGMI in India,” said Geerthigan.

PUBG is set to launch another completely new game named- ‘PUBG New State’ and pre-registration has already commenced for the game which is expected to be out on October 8, this year.

Tech experts opine that the government should regulate the games rather than banning them. “A game is just an app and in the past we have seen that whenever an app is banned the same will be launched under a different name. The same is the case with PUBG,” said Vinod Kumar Arumugam, a city-based cyber expert.