There is still no official word on whether we will see the ban on PUBG lift in India. The popular battle royale found itself banned along with several other Chinese applications like TikTok under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
With the announcement of the follow-up to PUBG titled PUBG: New State, many players have now begun to wonder if the game would see release in India. The publication GemWire managed to find a hidden "Hindi" language option on the official site for PUBG: New State.
This has got people talking again on whether Krafton - the South Korean publishers currently in charge of PUBG - plans to release the game in India. Currently, the game is not scheduled for release in China, Vietnam and India.
As per a report on the Korean publication The Guru, Krafton wants to focus on getting PUBG Mobile relaunched in India first and then worry about New State.
Krafton wants to focus on re-launching PUBGM for India (banned late 2020) before PUBG: New State.
But it's proving to be difficult:"I'd love to re-launch it as soon as I can. But [the problem]'s not about us (Krafton), it's about India.”
-- 장병규, Chairman of Krafton— PlayerIGN (@PlayerIGN) March 2, 2021
It's highly unlikely India is going to budge from its stance. None of the apps that have been banned have seen a return and even after PUBG is now in the hands of a Korean company, its Chinese origins are going to be a tough pill for the Indian government to swallow.
The game was banned during a drive to ban several Chinese apps in India over rising privacy and security concerns. Unless Krafton comes up with a way to store user data on servers maintained in India, a relaunch is highly unlikely.
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