PUBG Corp. cuts ties with Chinese publisher Tencent

Last week, the Indian government banned 118 Chinese apps, including the much popular PUBG Mobile game. The authorities cited that the apps were a threat to India’s integrity and sovereignty. Since then, the reaction to this new development has been mixed. While many have supported the government’s decision, a large portion of the population was let down by it.

However, recently PUBG Corp. the company that owns the game has released a statement. In the statement, they announced that PUBG Corp had severed ties with the Chinese publisher Tencent Games. The statement further read that the company will be taking on all the publishing responsibilities in India. Moreover, reports claim that the South Korean publisher intends to partner with an Indian publisher. If the companies agree upon a partnership, the game’s publishing rights will remain with PUBG Corp. But, the Indian firm will gain the game’s distribution rights in India.

Despite being banned in India, PUBG is not a Chinese game. Instead, a South Korean company, named PUBG Corp. owns it. They had previously given the distribution rights to Tencent Games, which is a Chinese gaming firm. However, the revocation of rights doesn’t guarantee the unbanning of PUBG Mobile in India. The Government of India has other concerns with the game that the company still needs to address. For now, rumours suggest Reliance Jio is in talks to acquire its distribution rights in India. If all goes smoothly, we assume the mobile game will return to India soon.

The recent developments come as good news to the millions of PUBG users in India. Many Indians on social media shared their excitement and enthusiasm over the recent news. Of course, considering the massive success of the battle royale, the reaction is entirely understandable. Many Indian developers took the ban as an opportunity to unveil their recent games. However, none has generated as much popularity as PUBG has done over the years. Now that there’s a chance of PUBG Mobile returning to India, it would be interesting to see how other games compete with it.