After the PUBG Corporation cut ties with Tencent Games to shed the Chinese tag in India, the South Korean maker of the game is reportedly scouting for an Indian partner to be able to make the game available in the Indian market.
As per a Livemint report, PUBG Corp is now looking to partner with an Indian gaming company and is reportedly working on a new licensing agreement with an Indian company. PUBG will then hand over the rights of PUBG Mobile in India to that company. However, the Indian firm will only handle distribution, while PUBG Corp will have the publishing rights for the game.
However, is it not known yet if partnering with an Indian gaming company will solve PUBG’s issue and lift the ban on the game. Livemint quotes a government official as saying that the basis for the ban goes beyond ownership, and is also related to activity inside the phone, data privacy, among others.
PUBG was banned by the Indian government last week along with 117 more apps citing data privacy and national security concerns.
Bringing back PUBG would be pertinent for the gaming major as India was its most popular market where it saw over 20 crore download and reportedly earned over $100 million through in-app purchases in India in 2019 alone. Tencent also used to organise PUBG tournaments in the country that drew thousands of youngsters with the lure of winning thousands of dollars in prize money.
On Monday, PUBG Corp said that it will no longer authorize the PUBG Mobile franchise to Tencent Games in India and that it is exploring 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.”
Post the ban, the government reportedly sent over 70 questions to PUBG on details on the company, asking PUBG to respond within three weeks. A similar exercise was also carried out with the first set of apps that were banned in India including TikTok, Club Factory, Shein, etc. However, there has been no update on their outcome yet.
PUBG’s ownership
PUBG Mobile is the mobile version PUBG, an intellectual property owned and developed by PUBG Corporation, a South Korean gaming company.
PUBG was first conceptualised and created by Irish game developer Brendan Greene. He went on to develop the game as creative director for PUBG Corporation.
PUBG Corp is a subsidiary of Bluehole, a South Korean gaming company. PUBG was first released as a game to be played on personal computers in 2017, and the game became an instant success.
In a bid to capitalise on its success, Bluehole’s PUBG Corp partnered with Chinese company Tencent’s gaming arm Tencent Games to develop a mobile version of the game. Tencent holds a 11% stake in Bluehole. The mobile version for Android and iOS was released in 2018, which then went on to become immensely popular not just in India, but across the globe.
Therefore, while PUBG Mobile was coded by a Chinese gaming firm, it is controlled only partly by it, and partly by a South Korean company, with both sharing profits.