PUBG Mobile Game Servers Completely Shut Down In India, Tencent Announces

Popular game PUBG (Player¡¯s Unknown Battlegrounds) shut down its servers in India from October 30. The shutdown of servers follows the ban of PUBG in India by the centre among 117 other Chinese apps in a move to ensure data security of the countrymen.

The Indian Government banned 117 Chinese apps over national security concerns including the Battle Royale action game.

PUBG Mobile

Announcing the termination of the services, the company wrote on Facebook, ¡°Dear Fans, To comply with the interim order of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology dated September 2, 2020, Tencent Games will terminate all service and access for users in India to PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik and PUBG MOBILE Lite (together, ¡°PUBG Mobile¡±) on October 30, 2020. The rights to publish PUBG MOBILE in India will be returned to the owner of the PUBG intellectual property.¡±

The shutdown of the server means the game will no longer be accessible to Indian IP addresses. While gamers could no longer access the game on the playstore or the app store, those who already had the game installed were able to play it. Although, it would not be possible to access the game anywhere now but we anticipate that gamers can access it by VPN or proxy.

PUBG Mobile

After the ban, PUBG took away publishing rights of the game from the Chinese company, Tencent for the games distribution in India. Following this, reports of PUBG corp making attempts to collaborate with potential partners in India including Airtel and JIo also surfaced.

After the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology said that, "engaged in activities prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order".