Dristi Sharma
The gaming community in India was in for a shock when Google Play Store and Apple's App removed Krafton Inc's Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).
Before BGMI, it banned another Krafton title, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) in 2020, which was actually a lot like BGMI.
There has been no official statement from the Information Ministry yet, but Krafton confirmed the news by saying, “We are clarifying how BGMI was removed from the Google Playstore and the Apple app store and will let you know once we get specific information.”
Meanwhile, Google has also officially released a statement and said, “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.”
BGMI recently got 100 million registered users and had big plans to expand its business in India. The timing of this ban, however, is not coincidental, given that members of the Rajya Sabha recently discussed the impact of such action games on children. The discussion was about the incident that took place in Lucknow last month, where a child killed his mother because she wouldn't let him play BGMI.
What we know so far: Even though the game has been removed from the Play Store and Apple's app, users who have already installed the game can still access it.
In Seoul, a Krafton spokesperson said that the developer was talking to relevant authorities and companies to figure out the exact situation regarding the suspension of BGMI on the two major app stores in India, reported Reuters.
Some experts are also of the opinion that India is ‘banning' BGMI again for ‘data security issues', in what comes as a flashback of 2020, when PUBG was banned for the same reasons.
However, to relaunch this game, Krafton severed its ties with China-based Tencent and assured that the data of Indian users would be safeguarded. The company also tied up with Microsoft for Azure to host BGMI.
Internet reacts: Soon after BGMI went missing from Google Play Store and Apple app, Twitter went berserk, and of course, had some “heated discussions” about it. Check out some of them:
Impact on Krafton: Soon after the news of BGMI going missing broke, Krafton shares plummeted more than 9% today, later making up for some of the losses and closed down 4.5% in Seoul. During the first quarter of this year, India was responsible for most of the company's revenue.
