The popular battle royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) has been removed by Apple and Google from their app stores following a government order. A Google spokesperson has confirmed the same to TOI Tech-Gadgets Now. “On receipt of the order, following the established process, we have notified the affected developer and have blocked access to the app that remained available on the Play Store in India,” said Google in a statement.
While Apple has so far not responded, the game is not available on the App Store in India.
Reason for the removal not known yet
The reason for the ban on the BGMI game is not known yet. The IT ministry has so far not said anything about the ban. The game publisher Krafton too has confirmed the ban and said that it is talking to the authorities seeking clarification.
BGMI’s removal comes almost a years after India banned PUBG, a similar title from South Korean developer Krafton. PUBG was banned for its affiliation with Chinese publisher Tencent Games. Post the PUBG ban, Krafton cut its ties with Tencent Games. The company had then announced that China’s Tencent Games would no longer be authorised to distribute the PUBG MOBILE franchise in India. The government banned PUBG gaming app along with 117 other mobile apps in September 2020. The banned apps were deemed as prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity and defence of the country.
BGMI launched in June 2021
Krafton relaunched the game under the BGMI branding in June 2021. The game has been quite popular in India and has been among the top 10 gaming apps in the country on Google Play Store ever since it launched. Earlier this month, Krafton announced that BGMI has crossed 100 million registered users in India.
Trouble was brewing for the game maker
Recently, union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that law enforcement agencies are investigating to find the reason about a “media report that a child has killed his mother based on PUBG that he has been playing.” “There was a media report that a child has killed his mother based on PUBG that he has been playing. This is a matter of investigation by LEAs (Law Enforcement Agencies) to find the reason. But, the PUBG gaming app was blocked by MeitY in the year 2020 and the PUBG game is not available in India since then,” Chandrasekhar said in a written reply.
The written reply also said that there are reports and grievances of banned apps appearing in new avatars using similar-sounding names have been forwarded to the home ministry for examination.
Earlier this year, PRAHAR, a non-profit organisation, working in the area of socio-economic development, had written a letter to the ministry of home affairs (MHA) and ministry of electronics and information technology (MEITY) asking for ban on BGMI under section 69A of the Information Technology Act. The NGO said that the app needs to be banned on the ground that it poses a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of India. The letter said that Krafton, the South Korean studio that publishes BGMI, is a front company of China’s leading internet company Tencent Holdings. It further claimed that Tencent is the second-largest shareholder of Krafton with 15.5% stocks.
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