PlayerUnknown¡¯s BattleGrounds (PUBG) has reportedly been trying to make a comeback in India following its ban from the country earlier this year.?
A new move by the parent firm Krafton Inc. might enable the popular multiplayer online game to do so in partnership with none other than tech major Microsoft.
Krafton has announced that it will now work with Microsoft Azure to host its portfolio of multiplatform products. For those unaware, Azure is a cloud computing service by Microsoft that enables building, testing, deploying, and managing applications through Microsoft¡¯s own data centres. As of now, Azure powers some of the biggest multiplayer games, taking care of their security as well as having a set of compliance offerings for these games.
As per the announcement, Krafton¡¯s deal with Microsoft will include ¡°products directly operated by the company¡± as well as its subsidiaries, including PUBG, on PC and consoles. This will also include PUBG MOBILE for Android and iOS devices.
The collaboration with Microsoft will also see Krafton depending on Azure for ensuring the privacy and data security of its users. ¡°The collaboration will ensure that privacy rights are respected and relevant software will be in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations,¡± says the release by the company.
An additional data security step resulting from the collaboration will see a new verification process that will store personally identifiable information of Krafton¡¯s players as per the appropriate requirements ¡°in the territories where Krafton and its subsidiaries operate gaming services.¡±
The regional compliance to the data laws might just enable Krafton to reintroduce the massively popular battle-royale game back in India. With Microsoft having three of its own data centres in the country, the collaboration will allow the data garnered from the users to remain in the country, further eliminating concerns over data leaks and security.
This is not the first time that PUBG has been reported to work with a partner in order to gain re-entry in India. Following its breakup with its Chinese owner Tencent, the PUBG Mobile game developer reported to be in talks with distribution partners within India to remove the data security concerns that led to its ban. Airtel and Jio were reported to be the possible distributors at the time.
However, none of the ongoing talks had been confirmed by either of the firms at the time. The global collaboration with Microsoft Azure, on the other hand, is a well-founded partnership and just might be the trump card that will enable the game¡¯s return to the Indian shores.