There was a time when the hype for the game PUBG was real. The hype was so much that the game’s fonts were used as design on pen, copy, t-shirts, or anything related to the youth. There were also several reported incidents where the game influenced the life of the users. Even after being so successful in India, why did krafton inc. change its name to Battlegrounds Mobile India?
Before we proceed, it is important to understand why PUBG Mobile was banned in the first place. According to the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY), 118 phone apps with ties to China were blocked on September 2, 2020, due to improper data handling that was prejudicial to Indian sovereignty, integrity, defense, security, and public order.
The demand for the game was so much in India that it forced the PUBG Corporation to develop a new game with keeping all those factors in mind. PUBG Corporation announced that they will develop a game which will be called PUBG mobile India. This game was developed without the help of China’s Tencent studio. A higher degree of localization was also supposed to be added with outfits, maps, and lesser violence.
Nevertheless, it was a shock, the new game was officially called Battlegrounds Mobile India instead. Over time, it became clear that Krafton was trying to avoid the ‘PUBG’ brand entirely, as presumably, it wanted to get rid of all previous notions and sentiments associated with the banned game. A report states that the company told its media partners to avoid using the older name in their coverage.
The new game is quite similar to PUBG but was not able to create the same hype as before. Though it is similar, it is also an upgraded version. Developers can launch apps on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store as long as both stores approve of them. Apps that are found to violate rules will only be halted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of Electronics and IT.
For now, there are no reports of the battleground game to be violating the rules.
