PUBG Corporation is reportedly in talks with the Indian telecom giant Airtel in the hopes that the latter would distribute "PUBG Mobile" in the country.
A recent report shared by Entracker revealed that PUBG Corporation talks with Reliance about a distribution deal connected to Jio platform have slowed down and the gaming giant is now seeking Airtel's assistance in distributing "PUBG Mobile" in India. The publication claimed that its source believes that PUBG's recent move underlines its eagerness to get the hit mobile game back into the Indian market.
Aside from this, the report also mentioned that "PUBG Mobile" is currently forming a lean team in the region. Candidates with under 4 to 6 years experience are currently being interviewed for the said team, the report added. Last month, a source within the Indian government confirmed that PUBG Corporation talked to Reliance, but this has reportedly slowed down.
In September, several sites reported that the "PUBG Mobile" ban in India is unlikely to be revoked even if the company finds a new distribution partner in the country. While the government's reason for prohibiting access to the game in the region was primarily due to its being a 'China App,' sources later revealed that complaints about it being too violent could be why the government would not lift its ban.
On September 2, "PUBG Mobile" was among the 118 mobile apps banned in India allegedly because of their links to Chinese publishers and developers. Following the mobile game's ban in the region, Sensor Tower Data reported that in September alone global downloads reportedly declined to 26%. The hit battle royale game enjoyed high download rates for the months of June, July and August in India.
When you love chaos as much as they love cars️ https://t.co/jpvrxdTR2h — PUBG MOBILE (@PUBGMOBILE) October 5, 2020
In June, the game was downloaded 25 million times while 18 million more downloaded it in July. According to Sensor Tower Data, "PUBG Mobile" only got 10.7million downloads in September as compared to 14.6 million installs in August. India owns the 30 to 35% overall game downloads in the past months and has contributed 24% or around 175 million downloads out of the game's 734 million lifetime downloads until June 2020.
Industry watchers and analysts noted that the decline in the number of "PUBG Mobile" downloads will not affect the company's revenue. But, considering its scale, the company's prospective valuation and monetization could be impacted.
