Rajkot Police banned anyone from playing PUBG in early March.
At the time, they called it "highly addictive" as well as indicated it was inciting violence among teenagers playing the game. It seems they may have changed their tune now however.
The ban wasn't ever supposed to be permanent, but it was expected to be in place from March 9 to April 30. At least five other cities in Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, joined in on the ban.
The local police had issued a warning saying violators would be booked under Section 188 of the IPC. In fact they did just that, arresting at least 10 people around the city simply for playing a smartphone game. And not in traffic or anything, but while sitting down off to the side at various locations.
They even went so far as to arrest six college students they found playing PUBG, somehow justifying to themselves that an "addictive" game is worse for a young person's future than an arrest on your permanent record.
Either way, it seems the criticism on social media worked. After facing a tidal wave of backlash, the Rajkot police have withdrawn the ban early. City police commissioner AK Singh confirmed that yesterday was the last day of the ban.?
"Yesterday, this matter came up for review and we decided that as the exam session is over and the direct trigger to initiating the action is not valid any more, we will not renew the proclamation. We have also taken public reaction into account," he said.
Meanwhile Tencent, the Chinese company that now owns and runs the game, has also taken cognizance of the issue. It seems they might be working on their own internal systems to limit playtime for young users. It is in fact something they could achieve, it being a tactic they already use for their games in China.
Whether that results in a blanket restriction on your daily PUBG playtime though, well that remains to be seen.