According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Google and Apple have removed the well-known mobile game Battlegrounds Mobile India, also known as BGMI, from their respective app stores in India to comply with New Delhi’s request. A year ago, developer Krafton released the app in response to the South Asian market’s ban on the similarly themed game PUBG.
The Play Store & Apple Store Get Direct Orders to Take Down The BGMI App From Server!
A Google representative confirmed the following in a statement to TechCrunch: “On receipt of the order, following established procedure, we have contacted the impacted developer and have restricted access to the app that was still available on the Play Store in India.”
On Thursday night in India, Google removed the app from the Play Store and Apple removed it from the App Store. An inquiry wasn’t immediately answered by the iPhone manufacturer.
The revelation comes in the wake of escalating hostilities between India and China, two nuclear-armed neighbors that have been at war since fatal border clashes in the Himalayas in 2020. As a response, India banned a huge number of China-linked applications, including PUBG and TikTok, which both regarded India as their most significant international user base.
The only app that returned was Krafton’s Pubg, even though it had an entirely new avatar, out of the hundreds that New Delhi had banned throughout the nation. In addition to promising to spend $100 million in India’s gaming industry, Krafton severed relations with its publishing partner Tencent. In the past 1.5 years, Krafton has financed several Indian businesses, including Godwin Gaming, Loco, Pratilipi, and Kuku FM.
