Nine months after being banned in India, PUBG Mobile has become available for download again. The game is now called Battlegrounds Mobile India. Prior to its Android release, it gained over 20 million pre-registrations on Google Play in just two weeks.
Every user in India can now download Battlegrounds Mobile India from Google Play. It has the same gameplay, and Krafton allowed players to transfer their old PUBG Mobile accounts to the new game.
However, developers had to make a few changes, so the Indian government would allow them to re-release the title. According to TechCrunch, Battlegrounds Mobile India has green blood and constant warnings to remind players that the game isn’t real.
Another notable change is that Krafton will now store user data on Microsoft’s servers in India instead of Chinese servers used by Tencent.
Last September, India banned PUBG Mobile along with 117 other mobile apps. The game got fully blocked in October due to the “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity” of the country. All these apps also had a connection to China.
PUBG Corp. announced its plans to return PUBG Mobile to the Indian app stores in November. The company wanted not only to change the game’s name but to also invest $100 million in the local games market. Krafton also decided to operate the new project independently, so the Indian authorities couldn’t blame it for its relationship with China.
We still don’t know all the details of how exactly the company managed to bring PUBG Mobile back. It’s worth noting that all apps banned in India last year still remain blocked, Battlegrounds Mobile India being one exception.
In other news, Krafton is now also preparing to launch its new game PUBG: New State. It will come out later this year and already has over 17 million pre-registrations on Google Play, according to PocketGamer.biz.