PUBG Corp. discontinues publishing deal with Tencent in India

PUBG Corp. hopes to unban PUBG Mobile in India.

The Indian government banned PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite along with 116 other apps from Chinese companies on September 2.  Authorities deemed them “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India.”

In response to the ban, PUBG Corp. announced that it “fully understands and respects the measures taken by the government” and hopes “to find a solution that will allow gamers to once again drop into the battlegrounds while being fully compliant with Indian laws and regulations.” To that end, PUBG Corp. decided to “no longer authorize the PUBG Mobile franchise to Tencent Games in India.” From now, the title will be published in the country by PUBG Corp. itself. The company is now looking into its options “to provide its own PUBG experience for India in the near future.”

Being a Korean company, PUBG Corp. stepping in as the publisher might work. Of course, it doesn’t completely erase its Chinese affiliation as Tencent remains the developer of the title, which potentially makes the reinstatement of the game problematic. Still, the move gives PUBG Mobile a realistic chance of coming back to India. After all, Call of Duty Mobile, which is published by Activision in the country, wasn’t banned despite being developed by Tencent.

Meanwhile, in the absence of PUBG Mobile, Bangalore-based studio Ncore Games announced a new title that even sounds a lot like PUBG. It’s called FAU:G, which stands for “Fearless and United: Guards.” Some of the game’s campaign will focus on India’s conflict with China over the Himalayan border between the two countries. It is this conflict that left 20 Indian soldiers killed on June 15, thus launching, among other things, India’s ongoing crackdown on apps from Chinese companies.