PUBG Mobile India’s new avatar for Battlegrounds Mobile India aims to deceive the government and its citizens and should be banned from the country, Arunachal Pradesh Member of Parliament Ninong Ering said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
He pointed out that by launching the new game, developer Krafton was criticizing Indian laws. The launch date for Battlegrounds Mobile India is yet to be confirmed, although a South Korean company has recently begun taking pre-registration for the game through the Google Play store.
The game is a re-expulsion of PUBG Mobile India which the government banned last year, among other games and applications, in addition to privacy concerns about their relations with China.
“This is just a hoax and a trick to restart the same game with minimal modification and data collection of millions of our citizens, including our children and transfer it to foreign companies and the Chinese government,” Ering, representing Pasighat West Assembly Region in Northeastern India, the letter said. He also posted a copy of his three-page book on Twitter, which was first reported by IGN India.
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Following the government’s ban on PUBG Mobile in September last year, Krafton took over the publishing and distribution rights to China’s Tencent Games in India, although the company is still the publisher and distributor of the game in other countries.
Ering, however, said almost all of Krafton’s Indian employees, including a senior management team, were Tencent employees who were “miraculously hired” by Krafton in December and worked at Battlegrounds Mobile India.
He noted that the URL of the game list in the Google Play store also recently indicated that it was a relaunch of PUBG Mobile India. The MLA also alleged that Nodwin Gaming, a company that recently received investment from Krafton, had a strong ongoing relationship with Tencent. Quoting news reports, he also said that Nodwin provided services in Pakistan and had a local team there.
“Krafton has a very close relationship with Tencent and is now an investor in Nodwin who works closely with Tencent,” he said.
The MLA said the points outlined by him led to the conclusive conclusion that Battlegrounds Mobile India “is just a relaunch of PUBG Mobile”.
“Game features and other features will be the same,” he said. “Krafton has also added maps from PUBG to this re-launched game and the weapons will look like just new names.”
Erring believes the redesigned game is Tencent’s “indirect way to get into India” and capture the details of Indian citizens. He said the game’s privacy policy states that while its details will be stored here in India and Singapore, it will be transferred to other countries and regions to use the game’s resources and meet legal requirements.
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“The announcement of the launch was also accompanied by the launch of the Krafton IPO, in which Tencent will directly benefit,” he said.
Ering also pointed out that if PUBG Mobile is allowed to restart, it will lead to others including TikTok and WeChat re-entering the country. He also added that the launch could pose a risk of “addiction, injury, and death” which was all evident in the previous war game.
360 gadgets have reached out to Krafton and Nodwin Gaming to comment on the matter and will review this space in response.
