Gaming

PUBG Mobile has cut ties with Tencent so gamers in India can continue to play

About 25% of PUBG Mobile players are from India.

by
Deep Ballu
September 10, 2020

Image: Unsplash

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PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has officially cut down ties with Tencent, the Chinese tech giant, whose services they’ve used from the moment they launched their game. They’ve decided to take this step because their app has been banned in India due to Tencent’s involvement.

PUBG Mobile was banned in India, along with other 118 apps, because they were associated with Chinese companies, in one way or another. Those apps were classified as dangerous to national security by the Indian government.

This radical stance comes amid the escalating border tensions between India and China over a disputed region in the Himalayas. Each country blames the other one for the escalation that was the cause of twenty Indian soldiers’ deaths. The Chinese government didn’t report any casualties on their side.

Before the ban, PUBG Mobile was very popular in India. According to data received from Sensor Tower, India was the biggest market for the game with over 185 million installs. According to that data, around 24% of downloads were from India. That’s a gigantic part of the business to be ignored, and the only reason they decided to cut ties with their longstanding Chinese partner.

In this particular case, the Chinese company Tencent is the one losing the most. Along with the loss of PUBG Mobile, the US government is also looking to ban WeChat. Tencent’s managers said that they plan to challenge the US ban in court.

It’s even more complicated considering that Tencent has made several investments in various US companies such as Epic Games and Riot Games. Tencent is also the publisher for PUBG Mobile in the United States.

What do you think? Do you still play PUBG Mobile? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Disclosure: PUBG was a previous client of media relations firm EZPR, where KnowTechie’s editor-in-chief holds a position. However, he did not participate in this post’s writing, editing, or publishing. He remains unbiased and independent in his role at KnowTechie. Any potential conflicts of interest have been disclosed.