Early Access To PUBG BattleGrounds India Begins For Selected Few

South Korean videogame developer  Krafton Inc., announced that it would be opening up early access to its newly released game BattleGrounds Mobile India. Only selected players would be given early access on a first come first serve basis. 

The game developer stated that early access to the game would be available on Google Play Store only to Indian users with the number of free slots increasing throughout the day. 

The company recently announced that after opening pre-registration on May 18, the pre registration count for its upcoming battle royale game surpassed 20 Mn within the first two weeks. It clocked 7.6 Mn pre-registrations on its opening day itself. 

While there hasn’t been an official announcement regarding it, BattleGrounds Mobile India, the Indian version of PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds (PUBG) is expected to release on June 18, 2021, a month after the pre-registration began. 

The original PUBG mobile title was banned in India ten months ago on allegations  of  engaging in activities that were prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India. This was also followed by the Government Of India permanently banning 59 Chinese apps. This is the mobile game’s first appearance back in India after that stint.

So far, there has been no mention of including iOS devices for the June 18 launch yet. Furthermore, these devices have not been included in pre registration too. The iOS version of the game is expected to be released later sometime.

While PUBG Mobile has been banned in India, the console and PC versions of PUBG remain unaffected. PUBG Mobile had over 175 Mn downloads and around 50 Mn monthly active users in India, as per reports, before its ban. Other games such as Call of Duty mobile and Garena Free Fire saw their user base grow in the wake of the PUBG mobile ban. 

Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio has partnered with US chipset manufacturer Qualcomm for a year-long collaboration on the former’s JioGames platform, starting with Call of Duty Mobile Aces Esports Challenge.

Among the Indian games, Fearless and United Guards (FAU-G), based on the clashes between the armies of India and China in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley, launched on the Google Play Store on January 26 this year. nCore Games, which has developed FAU-G, had earlier disclosed that the game had clocked 1.05 Mn pre-registrations on the Play Store within 24 hours of the option going live. FAU-G was first announced in September 2020 after the PUBG ban.  nCore Games cofounder Vishal Gondal had told Inc42 last year that FAU-G would target 50 Mn downloads in the first three months after launch.