- BGMI, the renamed PUBG Mobile game (which itself got banned earlier), has now been banned in India.
- The game has been removed from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
- As for those who have the game installed already, things are so far, so good.
In a rather surprising turn of events, BGMI (Battlegrounds Mobile India) has been banned in India. The game has been removed from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store in the country, and is not available for download on either iOS or Android devices. Google has officially commented on the matter, saying that the removal of the game from the Play Store comes as a result of a direct government order. That said, those who have the game installed on their devices can still access the BGMI servers and, therefore, play the game for now.
BGMI banned in India, reasons unknown so far
Krafton, the developer of BGMI, confirmed the development, and has said, “We are clarifying how BGMI was removed from Google Play Store and the App store and will let you know once we get specific information.” As for Google, the officials said that the company received an official order from the government of India to remove BGMI from the store and, “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,”
While the reason behind the new (soft) ban is still unknown, and we await for an official statement from either the government of India or Krafton Inc., for those who already have the game installed on their devices, there’s still time, as they can still be able to access the BGMI servers and play a bunch of Team Death Matches, before the game completely vanishes into thin air (or comes backs with a bang).
For those unaware (which is highly unlikely), BGMI was introduced specifically for India following the ban of its global counterpart, PUBG Mobile. PUBG Mobile was banned alongside a host of other apps and games, which had their roots in China, as the apps were allegedly sending the user data over Chinese servers and were a threat to national security. After a series of discussions, negotiations, and what not, the developers managed to (sort of) sneak in more or less the same game, albeit with a new name.
This new move comes soon after a recent incident in Lucknow, where a 16-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed his mother over an argument about PUBG/BGMI. The issue was soon raised in the Rajya Sabha, and discussions surrounding the BGMI ban started popping up as well. To learn more about this incident, you can head to our previous coverage for the same.
