Krafton’s Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), the rebranded version of PUBG Mobile, has been removed from Google Play Store and Apple Store in India. As per reports, the game has been removed following a government order.
Google has confirmed it was done on government order. The company said, “On receipt of the order, following established process, we have notified the affected developer and have blocked access to the app that remained available on the Play Store in India.”
There are no official statements from Apple, the Indian Government, and Kraft.
BGMI was launched in the country last year to bring back PUBG Mobile which was banned in the country. Now BGMI has also been added to the banned apps list. If you already have the game installed on your phone, you can keep playing it. However, there is no way to install it. You no longer download the APK from the official website. So, there is no official way to get the game on a new phone. You can still download the APK from APK download websites or get it from other devices where it has already been installed.
Recently, a 16-year-old boy killed his mother for not allowing him to play online games like PUBG. The matter has been investigated by law enforcement agencies.
During the ongoing Monsoon session in the parliament, Vijayasai Reddy, a member of Parliament, Andhra Pradesh raised the issue of the reappearance of the banned game. After this, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights wrote a letter to MeitY asking how the game that was banned in the country is again available. MeitY confirmed that PUBG Mobile is still not available. It further said that PUBG Mobile and BGMI are two different games.
We are not sure if this is a temporary ban or a permanent one. Kraft is working with government authorities to understand how it can bring the back.
BGMI is the biggest eSports title in India helping gamers make a career out of it. We should regulate but banning these games surely affects a lot of people. There are also several similar games including New State Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile Apex Legends Mobile, Free Fire Max, and more. If the reason for the ban is making children violent, the availability of other games is also not justifiable.
