The adventure of PUBG Mobile in India is certainly not an easy one. Even though the game is massively popular here, a lot of people – especially parents – are concerned about it causing gaming addiction among youngsters, which has resulted in the battle royale title being banned across 4 Indian cities. Since the ban was issued, over 20 people have reportedly been arrested for playing the game, and it seems that the developer is implementing a playtime limit of maximum 6 hours a day in the country to combat this.

Pubg Banned
PUBG Mobile has been banned in several Indian cities and dozens have been arrested for playing it

In a recent development, PUBG Mobile is met with another problem in India, one that’s related to culture. A slip-up on the side of publisher Tencent has angered many players in the country. The Chinese game studio made a basic error when it released an in-game item that heavily resembles the Kaaba, the most important shrine of Islam.

This item was part of the birthday crate that Tencent introduced to PUBG Mobile last week to celebrate the game’s first anniversary. Understandably, it infuriated a large number of Muslim players, which led to a huge backlash since about 15% of the Indian population is Muslim.

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Some tweets from angered Muslims

These players took to social media to express their anger, writing and sharing posts with the #boycottPUBG hashtag. Some even went so far as to create petitions on Change.org demanding that Tencent make a public apology. One of these petitions raked in almost 1000 signatures.

On the receiving end of all of these criticisms, the developers swiftly took action, issuing an apology on their official Twitter page and promising to redesign the crate immediately.

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The birthday crate in PUBG Mobile reportedly looks like the Kaaba

Even though this was not enough to quench the anger of everyone, some fans have spoken up to defend Tencent and praised the studio for quickly responding to the issue.

One thing is for certain, this kind of heat is the last thing that PUBG Mobile needs in India right now, given that it is already being branded as harmful for children’s mental health and academic achievements. Goa’s IT Minister Rohan Khaunte even called the game “a demon in every house”, while the Navbharat Times – one of the largest Hindi newspapers in India – says that it is an “epidemic” that turn youngsters into “manorogi”, or psychopaths.

To respond to the threat of bans, PUBG Mobile is reportedly testing a “healthy gaming” system that prevents players from playing more than six hours a day.