After the Indian government banned PUBG Mobile in September 2020, the devs has tried every way possible to bring back the game, including cutting ties with Tencent. Finally, Battlegrounds Mobile India, the PUBG Mobile version for Indian players, was officially released on July 2 for Android while the BGMI iOS download link came out on August 18. The game has some small changes to the global version but it is overall the same game.
Many players are still afraid that the game might be banned again in India because of its origin. Also, there has been some information recently showing that Battlegrounds Mobile India is sending users' data to China. In this article, we are going to bring everything about Battlegrounds Mobile India to light.
Table of Contents
1. Who is Battlegrounds Mobile India's publisher?
Battlegrounds Mobile India's publisher is Krafton, previously known as BlueHole. Krafton is a South Korean company that developed the famous battle royale title on PC, PlayerUnknown's Battleground or PUBG.
Kim Chang-han, the CEO of the studio that developed PUBG, is now the CEO of Krafton and also the CEO of Battlegrounds Mobile India branch.
Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate, is still the second biggest stakeholder of Krafton. However, Tencent has nothing to do with who invented Battlegrounds Mobile India as Krafton developed the game totally independently, at least as they claimed.
2. Which country made Battlegrounds Mobile India?
Battlegrounds Mobile India's publisher and developer is Krafton, which is a South Korean company. So basically Battlegrounds Mobile India is a South Korean game.
Previously, Tencent, a Chinese gaming company, was the publisher of PUBG Mobile and you can see their logo whenever you open the game. However, Krafton has cut ties with Tencent after the PUBG Mobile ban in an attempt to bring the game back. Now, if you open Battlegrounds Mobile India on your device, you will no longer see the Tencent logo anymore.
3. Is Battlegrounds Mobile India sending data to China?
The Indian government banned PUBG Mobile in September 2020 due to the fear of the game leaking users' information to China. That's why it is important to know if Battlegrounds Mobile India is doing the same thing because it might get banned again.
In a statement, Battlegrounds Mobile India's publisher said that the game "fully comply with the Indian laws and regulations". However, in a report made by IGN India, Krafton seemingly failed to keep their word of not sending user's data to China.
Battlegrounds Mobile India sent data to Tencent servers
IGN India use a sniffer data app before playing a Battlegrounds Mobile India match and found out that the game did exchange a data package with servers located in China and in other locations as well. The app showed IP Addresses that Battlegrounds Mobile India connected with. By using WhoIs (an app to track the origin of an IP Address), IGN India found out that the IP Address the game used the most belonged to China Mobile Communications Corporation.
That is not all, the game exchanged data with Tencent's servers, a ping server, linked to a cloud platform called Qcloud, owned by Tencent, and an anti-cheat server that is used to catch cheaters. This is proof that Battlegrounds Mobile India is sending data to China. The game also connects to servers from other countries such as the US, Moscow,...
How Krafton explained for BGMI connection to Chinese servers
Krafton admits that the game did connect to the China servers and other third parties, but it is for the sake of account transferring for players. They were just trying to make their Early Access process as fast as possible. It makes sense that they need to access overseas servers to get back the data for players.
That's also why they need players to accept a disclaimer. The data is from Proxima Beta Pte. Limited, which is a Singapore company that is own by Tencent.
Similar to other global mobile games and apps, BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA also uses third party solutions to provide unique game features. In the process of using these solutions, some game data was shared to third parties. BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA’s privacy policy fully discloses that the app may transfer some user data, with users’ consent to the privacy policy and choosing to migrate their accounts. No data has been shared in violation of the privacy policy.
Thus, data shared to third parties are ONLY to enable certain game features. In the meantime, KRAFTON will continue to closely monitor and protect any data being transferred to unexpected and restricted IP addresses prior to the official launch.
>>> Read more: Free Fire Ban In India: Is It Possible In 2021?
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