PUBG Corporation in talks with Bharathi Airtel for the Indian Distribution rights

Business
Oct 10 2020 04:25 PM
News Track

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India has banned 118 china based apps, including the famous battle royal game PUBG Mobile, on the grounds that they were "prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity" of the country. While PUBG players are worrying about the ban, PUBG Corporation, based in Korea released an official statement,”they no longer authorize the PUBG Mobile franchise to Shenzhen-based Tencent Games in India” soon after the ban by Indian Government. This statement by PUBG Corporation brought a sense of relief to the Indian PUBG Mobile community as it opened the doors for the return of the game to the country.

The reports were saying PUBG is looking for an Indian partner to distribute the game in the country. Few revealed that PUBG Corporation had initiated talks with Reliance Jio. However, the talks with Jio is not materialized and PUBG Corporation is now engaged in negotiation with Bharati Airtel for the distribution rights. According to a recent data the global download rate of PUBG Mobile has fallen by 26% in September 2020, owing to the ban in India.

“PUBG is in early conversation with Airtel for handing over distribution rights to the telecom giant. This desperation shows that PUBG has been trying hard to get back into the Indian market. The gaming platform is also busy in raising a lean team in India. It has been interviewing candidates with experience of under 4 to 6 years”, a source said. According to the survey, September month PUBG download is 10.7 million globally whereas 14.6 million downloads in the month of August. India contributes 30 to 35 % of PUBG’s overall downloads in the past 4 to 5 months. Till June, India has contributed 175 million around 24% of 734 millions of PUBG downloads.