China's Tencent Games will no longer be authorised to distribute PUBG Mobile in India, South Korea's PUBG Corp. said on Tuesday.
The development comes a week after India banned 118 mobile apps, including PUBG Mobile, amid heightened tensions with its northern neighbour in Ladakh.
"In light of the recent developments, PUBG Corporation has made the decision to no longer authorise the PUBG MOBILE franchise to Tencent Games in India,” according to a statement. “Moving forward, PUBG Corp. will take on all publishing responsibilities within the country.”
PUBG Corp. said it fully understands and respects the measures taken by the Indian government as "privacy and security of player data is a top priority for the company".
There was no immediate comments from Tencent.
The gaming firm also expressed hope to work “hand-in-hand with the Indian government to find a solution that will allow gamers to once again drop into the battlegrounds while being fully compliant with Indian laws and regulations”.
PUBG Mobile is the mobile version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, an intellectual property owned and developed by PUBG Corp. According to reports, India accounts for a significant portion of PUBG MOBILE's downloads and usage.
Last week, the government blocked 118 mobile apps, including PUBG MOBILE, terming them prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity and defence of the nation. This was in addition to the 59 Chinese apps that were banned in June on similar grounds.
Interestingly, Bengaluru-based nCore Games has announced the launch of FAU:G—a multiplayer action game that has been developed under the mentorship of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar—just days after the government banned PUBG MOBILE.
FAU:G, which stands for ‘Fearless and United: Guards' will be launched at the end of October and the first level will be set in the Galwan Valley backdrop, followed by third person shooting gameplay in the subsequent releases.
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