Will PUBG Mobile Ever Come Back To India?

On Sept 2, after a serious border clash between the Indian Army and the Chinese Army, India's government has revealed that they are going to ban 118 Chinese applications from operating in the country, including the infamous PUBG Mobile, the most popular mobile game in the Indian market. This decision was not much of a surprise, as previously, 59 apps have been banned because of the June Clash. In this article, we would further analyze the ban to try to answer the question: Will PUBG Mobile ever be unbanned?

1 - Solve the Data Security concern

Overall, PUBG Mobile has not done anything wrong, they are just caught in the political fire between the two countries. Tencent is one of the biggest media companies in the world, with stakes owned by the Chinese government - and any data accessed by them can be given to the Chinese government (based on Chinese Laws). Currently, while PUBG Mobile India's server is in India itself, the team over in China can access it at any time, which makes everything pointless. Tencent would now need to make sure that any data gathered from Indians stay in India - only after that could they petition for their apps to be unbanned.

Pubg Mobile Ban In India — PUBG Mobile's privacy policy

They can also sell the India version itself for an Indian company similar to what Tik Tok did, but this is pretty unlikely.

2 - Wait for the conflict to calm down

It is unlikely that the India vs China conflict would escalate to a real war, as both countries are nuclear powers. If the situation calms down after an agreement in the future, games like PUBG Mobile can be unbanned by India as a gesture of reconciliation. This is actually one of the worst scenarios, as you probably would have to wait for months, if not years. And in a rapidly moving video game world like this, PUBG Mobile might even be forgotten.