The Indian government has lifted the ban on BGMI on the condition of a three-month trial period.
Nearly a year after getting banned, Krafton Inc’s Battlegrounds Mobile India is now available for download on iOS and Android devices in the country. The South Korean company announced on Monday the return of its popular mobile game with a 2.5 update.
According to reports, the game was available for pre-load from May 27 on the Google Play Store but went live two days later on May 29. However, several players complained about not being able to log in or expressed their inability to get to the main screen. Krafton recently announced that BGMI is now available to all in the country.
The company relaunched the game with updates including new in-game events and a new map called Nusa, among others. Furthermore, with its comeback, the company says that BGMI Players will get permanent outfits for free. Users can download the game from Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Existing users who had their profile liked to social media accounts like Facebook, etc., can log in using their credentials, while players using the guest account before the ban would lose all their progress.
Earlier this month, the Indian government lifted the ban on BGMI on the condition of a three-month trial period. India’s IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the move came after the company complied with issues of server locations and data security raised by the Indian government. “We will keep a close watch on other issues of User harm, Addiction etc in next 3 months before a final decision is taken,” the Minister said earlier this month.
To give a quick recap, the Indian government blocked BGMI in July last year and removed it from Apple and Google app stores. BGMI is the rebranded version of PUBG Mobile which was banned in India as part of the government’s crackdown on Chinese apps that were deemed a threat to national security and were accused of intentionally gathering sensitive user data back in 2020. Apart from BGMI, popular Chinese apps like TikTok, WeChat, Shein, and some others developed by consumer tech major Xiaomi like Mi Browser, Mi Browser Pro, Mi Community, and Mi Video Call are also banned in India.
