Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds corporation is in talks with Jio to bring back one of the more popular multiplayer battle royale games in India that was banned last month due to the on-border tensions between India and China.
According to a report by the Hindu Business Line, the talks are in very early stages and the deal is being finalized from the ends of both the companies.
Also Read: PUBG is Looking for Partners in India
The gaming App was banned as it engages in activities that are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity, defence, and security of the country under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. Since the ban, PUBG Corporation has said that it has revamped the distribution rights for the game in India from Tencent which now means it will be pushing its own in the country.
In a blog post, Tencent said, “It understands and respects the measures taken by the government as the privacy and security of player data is a top priority for the company.” Adding to this the company said that it will work with the Indian government to resolve the matter.PUBG Corporation in a statement said: “In light of recent developments, PUBG Corporation has made the decision to no longer authorize the PUBG MOBILE franchise to Tencent Games in India. Moving forward, PUBG Corporation will take on all publishing responsibilities within the country. As the company explores ways to provide its own PUBG experience for India in the near future, it is committed to doing so by sustaining a localized and healthy gameplay environment for its fans.”
Also Read: PUBG to be Back Soon in India?
Some reports also state that both the companies will be working on getting the revenue splitting process done. Now, there are possibilities that the split of the share would be 50:50 or Jio guaranteeing the game to earn revenue per fixed number of users every month.
As the deal is in the early stages the chances of it not happening at all are also possible. However, if they do, this deal might help Jio get into the gaming scene and expand it as Microsoft also partnered with Jio to launch its Project xCloud game streaming service in India.
Currently, PUBG is not available on the Play Store or the App Store. Installing the APK and setting up the OBB file also does not help the hame work as it does not get the port allocation from the ISPs. It will be interesting to see what these two firms are up to and what they might be able to bring to the table.