PUBG almost singlehandedly started the trend of live game streaming and boosted the market for games and e-sports in India, but recently due to the tension between India and China and shady practices of Chinese app developers the game got banned along with a big number of other Chinese applications.
Reportedly PUBG Corporation is in early negotiation with telecom company Airtel to distribute PUBG Mobile in India.
“PUBG is in early conversation with Airtel for handing over distribution rights to the telecom giant. This desperation shows that PUBG has been trying hard to get back into the Indian market,” a source told the publication on the condition of anonymity.
“The gaming platform is also busy in raising a lean team in India. It has been interviewing candidates with experience of under 4 to 6 years,” the source added.
However there is no official statement from PUBG Corporation and Airtel on this.
PUBG Mobile was banned on Sept. 2 in India, along with 117 other mobile phone apps that have ties to Chinese developers or publishers. At the time the popular mobile battle royale game was being published in India by Tencent Games. The ban was precipitated by border tensions between India and China.
The Entrackr report also noted that since the ban of the game, PUBG Mobile downloads declined 26% globally in the month of September, according to Sensor Tower Data.
According to the sources the talks with Reliance to distribute the game in India through its Jio platform has slowed down. Same source also indicated that the government had no plans to lift the ban on the game anytime soon, adding that there had been complaints about the game being “too violent.”
