"PUBG Mobile," the hit mobile battle royale title, was banned in India a couple of months ago and shut down its servers recently is reportedly planning to return to the region with the help of a major tech giant.
Techcrunch reported that a couple of sources familiar with the issue told the site that "PUBG Mobile" is planning to return to India. The report claimed that PUBG Corporation, which is now a part of Krafton, recently worked with global cloud service providers to store users' data of Indian players within the country to alleviate concerns about user data security and residency. PUBG Corporation allegedly informed some high profile streamers in India that the game could resume its service in India before the end of 2020, Techcrunch's sources revealed.
One of the site's sources reportedly claimed that the announcement of "PUBG Mobile's" return in India could happen as early as this week. It added that the company plans to launch a marketing campaign in India during the festival of Diwali. The report also mentioned that the company reached out to several local firms in India, including Airtel and Paytm, to have a partner in resuming its operations in the country.
PhonesWiki, meanwhile, said that PUBG Corporation is working on an advertisement featuring Indian streamers Kronten and Dynamo. It also mentioned that a Bollywood actor might join the streamers. Another report from AFK Gaming claimed that reliable sources confirmed that "PUBG Mobile" is already in advanced planning stages in returning to India.
Another report from TalkEsport mentioned that Reliance Jio would like to take a shot at a partnership with PUBG Corporation at the last minute. At this point, however, PUBG Corporation has not said anything regarding rumors of "PUBG Mobile's" return to the country. On Nov. 7, Krafton announced that it has made a global partnership with Microsoft.
As part of the deal, "PUBG Mobile" and other games developed by Krafton and its subsidiaries would be hosted on Microsoft Azure. According to the company, the partnership would ensure that users' personal data would be protected. It can be recalled that PUBG Corporation terminated all service and access for "PUBG Mobile" users in India on Oct. 30.
At that time, PUBG Corporation said that "Protecting user data has always been a top priority and we have always complied with applicable data protection laws and regulations in India." It also assured "PUBG Mobile" players in the region that users' gameplay data is processed in a transparent manner, as stated in the company's privacy policy.
