Krafton , publisher of one of India’s most popular esports titles , Battlegrounds Mobile India ( BGMI ), made a number of pledges to the government to get the ban on it lifted. This has emerged from ET’s conversations with senior government officials and Indian gaming industry executives. BGMI is the successor to the much-headlined PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).
Though neither the government nor Krafton publicly commented on what led to the ban in July 2022, government officials told ET the South Korean gaming giant had to move data out of servers that had second- or third-tier connections to China as part of conditions for its return. Advt It’s also learnt to have committed to step up investments in India, a development that was announced three months after BGMI’s ban was lifted. This was in addition to some changes to the game itself, such as the introduction of strict time limits — for both adult and young players — to tackle concerns over possible addiction.
Krafton did not respond to queries for this story. An email query sent to the IT ministry also did not elicit a response. The Beginning At the time it was blocked, BGMI was the most popular online game in the country, with over 100 million registered users, a large chunk of them playing on mobile phones.
The game involves a large number of players whose online avatars are dropped into a closed virtual geography. They battle each other using in-game weapons, with the last remaining gamer or team winning the match. This is called the battle royale genre of online games.
PUBG, a game built by Krafton but published by Chinese tech giant Tencent, was banned in India in 2020 as part of a wider crackdown on Chinese apps. Krafton introduced BGMI in India in June 2021, publishing the game itself to ensure data law compliance, but with essentially similar plotlines and game mechanics to PUBG. It had certain India-specific customisations — green blood to reduce the gore and warnings against in-game violence, and a statutory audio warning that it’s merely a simulation set in a virtual realm.
The block on BGMI in 2022 was under Section 69 of the IT Act, 2002, which gives broad powers to the government to ban online apps and sites if it considers them a threat to national security and public order. Advt In May last year, when the ban was lifted, it came with caveats and a three-month timeline. “The publishers were told to jump through certain hoops during the three-month period, failing which, the government would have taken action against the game.
. . but by August, it was felt there was no need to re-introduce the ban,” a senior official said.
There was no official communication from either Krafton or the government at the end of the period, and the game continued operating. In May, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted that Krafton had “complied with issues of server locations and data security. ” The Struggle In 2022, when the block was announced, Krafton, led by resident India chief executive Sean Hyunil Sohn, stepped up conversations with the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY).
“The firm went completely quiet and decided to directly engage with the government, instead of making a hue and cry about the sudden block. In the long run, it was a great decision to not antagonise the government,” said an industry executive. Sohn had a clear directive from Krafton headquarters — get the game reinstated in an increasingly lucrative market, people in the know told ET.
A former banker, Sohn had been chief financial officer at PUBG Corp and head of corporate development at Krafton before he was appointed as the Indian entity’s chief. He first came to India just as the second Covid-19 wave was waning in mid-2021, and eventually moved his entire family to Bengaluru, the company’s country headquarters. Amid negotiations with the government, multiple Indian and foreign gaming companies talked about a possible joint venture to bring BGMI back, or even purchase it outright.
“However, Sean’s mandate was clear — do whatever it takes to get BGMI to return to India under the sole control of Krafton. And to his credit, he stuck to it,” said the executive cited earlier. As part of the discussions, Krafton also promised the government it would make more investments in India, people in the know told ET.
In August last year, just months after BGMI’s return, Krafton said it would invest $150 million in Indian startups over the next two to three years. At the time, it had already put in about $140 million in 11 Indian ventures, including Nazara Technologies unit Nodwin Gaming, Pratilipi and Kuku FM. In October, Krafton announced its maiden gaming-focused incubator programme for Indian startups, offering $50,000-150,000 as support, with “exceptional” teams getting up to $250,000.
The Game Industry executives told ET the bar took Krafton and the wider Indian gaming sector by surprise. “The esports industry was heavily dependent on BGMI at the time as it was gaining wider acceptance, with the BGMI Masters tournament being shown on linear television,” a senior gaming executive told ET. “This was just weeks before the block… gaming firms and gamers alike were completely caught off guard by the move.
” The BGMI app was clocking 24-29 million unique visitors every month before it was banned, according to media measurement and analytics platform Comscore data. In the 10-month period where official access to the game was blocked, it still had 13-15 million unique users — likely through virtual private networks (VPNs) or forked versions. Forked versions have divergent source codes.
However, . The uptick has continued, peaking at nearly 30 million users in July 2023. By Soumyajit Saha & Pranav Mukul , ETtech Published On Jan 11, 2024 at 07:58 AM IST Telegram Facebook Copy Link Be the first one to comment.
Comment Now COMMENTS Comment Now Read Comment (1) All Comments Post Post Find this Comment Offensive? Choose your reason below and click on the submit button. This will alert our moderators to take actions REASONS FOR REPORTING Foul Language Defamatory Inciting hatred against a certain community Out of Context / Spam Others Report Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals Subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights & analysis. Download ETTelecom App Get Realtime updates Save your favourite articles Scan to download App BGMI PUBG bgmi battle war battlegrounds mobile india esports titles krafton {“@context”:”http://schema.
org”,”@type”:”BreadcrumbList”,”itemListElement”:[{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:1,”item”:{“@id”:”https://telecom. economictimes. indiatimes.
com”,”name”:”Home”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:2,”item”:{“@id”:”https://telecom. economictimes. indiatimes.
com/news”,”name”:”News”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:3,”item”:{“@id”:”https://telecom. economictimes. indiatimes.
com/news/mvas-apps”,”name”:”MVAS/Apps”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:4,”item”:{“@id”:”https://economictimes. indiatimes. com/tech/technology/how-krafton-brought-pubg-successor-battlegrounds-back-from-a-ban/articleshow/106707729.
cms”,”name”:”How Krafton brought PUBG successor Battlegrounds back from a ban”}}]} {“@context”:”http://schema. org”,”@type”:”NewsArticle”,”mainEntityOfPage”:{“@type”:”WebPage”,”@id”:”https://telecom. economictimes.
indiatimes. com/news/mvas-apps/how-krafton-brought-pubg-successor-battlegrounds-back-from-a-ban/106712601″},”headline”:”How Krafton brought PUBG successor Battlegrounds back from a ban”,”datePublished”:”2024-01-11T07:58:50+05:30″,”dateModified”:”2024-01-11T07:59:36+05:30″,”articleBody”:”Krafton, publisher of one of India’s most popular esports titles, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), made a number of pledges to the government to get the ban on it lifted. This has emerged from ET’s conversations with senior government officials and Indian gaming industry executives.
BGMI is the successor to the much-headlined PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). Though neither the government nor Krafton publicly commented on what led to the ban in July 2022, government officials told ET the South Korean gaming giant had to move data out of servers that had second- or third-tier connections to China as part of conditions for its return. It’s also learnt to have committed to step up investments in India, a development that was announced three months after BGMI’s ban was lifted.
This was in addition to some changes to the game itself, such as the introduction of strict time limits — for both adult and young players — to tackle concerns over possible addiction. Krafton did not respond to queries for this story. An email query sent to the IT ministry also did not elicit a response.
The BeginningAt the time it was blocked, BGMI was the most popular online game in the country, with over 100 million registered users, a large chunk of them playing on mobile phones. The game involves a large number of players whose online avatars are dropped into a closed virtual geography. They battle each other using in-game weapons, with the last remaining gamer or team winning the match.
This is called the battle royale genre of online games. PUBG, a game built by Krafton but published by Chinese tech giant Tencent, was banned in India in 2020 as part of a wider crackdown on Chinese apps. Krafton introduced BGMI in India in June 2021, publishing the game itself to ensure data law compliance, but with essentially similar plotlines and game mechanics to PUBG.
It had certain India-specific customisations — green blood to reduce the gore and warnings against in-game violence, and a statutory audio warning that it’s merely a simulation set in a virtual realm. The block on BGMI in 2022 was under Section 69 of the IT Act, 2002, which gives broad powers to the government to ban online apps and sites if it considers them a threat to national security and public order. In May last year, when the ban was lifted, it came with caveats and a three-month timeline.
“The publishers were told to jump through certain hoops during the three-month period, failing which, the government would have taken action against the game. . .
but by August, it was felt there was no need to re-introduce the ban,” a senior official said. There was no official communication from either Krafton or the government at the end of the period, and the game continued operating. In May, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted that Krafton had “complied with issues of server locations and data security.
”The StruggleIn 2022, when the block was announced, Krafton, led by resident India chief executive Sean Hyunil Sohn, stepped up conversations with the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY). “The firm went completely quiet and decided to directly engage with the government, instead of making a hue and cry about the sudden block. In the long run, it was a great decision to not antagonise the government,” said an industry executive.
Sohn had a clear directive from Krafton headquarters — get the game reinstated in an increasingly lucrative market, people in the know told ET. A former banker, Sohn had been chief financial officer at PUBG Corp and head of corporate development at Krafton before he was appointed as the Indian entity’s chief. He first came to India just as the second Covid-19 wave was waning in mid-2021, and eventually moved his entire family to Bengaluru, the company’s country headquarters.
Amid negotiations with the government, multiple Indian and foreign gaming companies talked about a possible joint venture to bring BGMI back, or even purchase it outright. “However, Sean’s mandate was clear — do whatever it takes to get BGMI to return to India under the sole control of Krafton. And to his credit, he stuck to it,” said the executive cited earlier.
As part of the discussions, Krafton also promised the government it would make more investments in India, people in the know told ET. In August last year, just months after BGMI’s return, Krafton said it would invest $150 million in Indian startups over the next two to three years. At the time, it had already put in about $140 million in 11 Indian ventures, including Nazara Technologies unit Nodwin Gaming, Pratilipi and Kuku FM.
In October, Krafton announced its maiden gaming-focused incubator programme for Indian startups, offering $50,000-150,000 as support, with “exceptional” teams getting up to $250,000. The GameIndustry executives told ET the bar took Krafton and the wider Indian gaming sector by surprise. “The esports industry was heavily dependent on BGMI at the time as it was gaining wider acceptance, with the BGMI Masters tournament being shown on linear television,” a senior gaming executive told ET.
“This was just weeks before the block… gaming firms and gamers alike were completely caught off guard by the move. ”The BGMI app was clocking 24-29 million unique visitors every month before it was banned, according to media measurement and analytics platform Comscore data. In the 10-month period where official access to the game was blocked, it still had 13-15 million unique users — likely through virtual private networks (VPNs) or forked versions.
Forked versions have divergent source codes. However, . The uptick has continued, peaking at nearly 30 million users in July 2023.
“,”keywords”:[“MVAS/Apps”,”BGMI PUBG”,”Bgmi”,”Battle”,”War”,”Battlegrounds Mobile India”,”Esports Titles”,”Krafton”],”articleSection”:”MVAS/Apps”,”url”:”https://telecom. economictimes. indiatimes.
com/news/mvas-apps/how-krafton-brought-pubg-successor-battlegrounds-back-from-a-ban/106712601″,”description”:”Krafton, publisher of one of India’s most popular esports titles, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), shifted data, hiked India investment, made changes to game to get ban revoked”,”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Soumyajit Saha”,”url”:”https://telecom. economictimes. indiatimes.
com/author/479261221/soumyajit-saha”},{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Pranav Mukul”,”url”:”https://telecom. economictimes. indiatimes.
com/author/479259077/pranav-mukul”},{“@type”:”Thing”,”name”:”ET Telecom”,”url”:”https://telecom. economictimes. indiatimes.
com”}],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”name”:”ETtech”,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:”https://img. etb2bimg. com/files/cp/upload-1679566637-et-telecom-light-theme.
png”,”width”:600,”height”:60}},”image”:[{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:”https://etimg. etb2bimg. com/thumb/msid-106712601,width-1200,height-900,resizemode-4/.
jpg”,”width”:1200,”height”:900}]} Home News MVAS/Apps How Krafton brought PUBG successor Battlegrounds back from a ban.
From: telecom_economictimes
URL: https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/mvas-apps/how-krafton-brought-pubg-successor-battlegrounds-back-from-a-ban/106712601
