PUBG Corporation ends publishing ties with Tencent Games in India

PUBG Corporation has ended its publishing ties with Tencent Games in India six days after the PUBG mobile gaming app was banned in the country. It means PUBG Corporation will take full charge of PUBG Mobile from Tencent Games in India. 

PUBG Mobile is the mobile version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, an intellectual property owned and developed by South Korean gaming firm Bluehole’s subsidiary PUBG Corporation. Chinese tech giant Tencent had tied up with Bluehole to introduce the mobile version of the game in the country. 

As per media reports, Tencent holds a 1.5% stake in Bluehole. 

“PUBG Corporation fully understands and respects the measures taken by the government as the privacy and security of player data is a top priority for the company. It hopes to work hand-in-hand with the Indian government to find a solution that will allow gamers to once again drop into the battlegrounds while being fully compliant with Indian laws and regulations, said the company on its official website.

“As the company explores ways to provide its own PUBG experience for India in the near future, it is committed to doing so by sustaining a localized and healthy gameplay environment for its fans,” it added.

While the government had banned 118 Chinese-origin apps over security and data protection, the decision by PUBG Corporation is only taking control of publishing or distribution rights from Tencent. In future, it may publish the gaming app under its own franchise but this does not address the issue of data security as flagged by the government.

Entrackr has sent queries to PUBG Corporation on how the decision of taking control from Tencent Games in India will impact the data protection of users.

India has been the top contributor for PUBG mobile’s downloads for the past one year. Just before the ban, it contributed 29.8% or 4.38 million downloads of its total 14.7 million downloads in August. Overall, it has around 185 million out of its total 768 million worldwide downloads till August.

The ban on PUBG also has given opportunities to similar gaming apps such as Garena Free Fire and Call of Duty. The duo along with Ludo King were the top three downloaded apps since the announcement of the ban on the gaming app in India.