A sure sign of PUBG Mobile's popularity - being name-dropped by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
PUBG Mobile was mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his interaction with students and parents at his Pariksha Par Charcha 2.0 event in New Delhi on Tuesday, a sure sign of its popularity in India. So just what is PUBG Mobile? The mobile game for Android and iOS has its origins in the battle royale genre that started on PC with games like Minecraft. PUBG is short for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds named after game designer Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene who developed PUBG on PC with Korea's PUBG Corp. It was inspired by the 2000 Japanese movie, Battle Royale. This was followed up by an iOS and Android release that's simply called PUBG Mobile and here's everything you need to know about it.
PUBG Mobile is an online game where 100 players parachute onto an island with no weapons or armour or items outside of cosmetic items that don't impact gameplay.
The game map shrinks every few minutes, forcing you to relocate to a new area, and damaging you until you do. Failing to enter a new safe zone results in death.
If you're the last player standing in PUBG Mobile, you're greeted with the phrase ‘winner, winner, chicken dinner'.
The game has been extremely popular on Android and iOS, clocking in around 200 million downloads and with 30 million users playing it daily.
PUBG Mobile is a game for Android and iOS smartphones based on PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG for short), a battle royale game that first released on PC and Xbox One.
PUBG Mobile is developed by the Tencent-owned studio Lightspeed and Quantum in China.
It first released in China on February 9, 2018 before being available internationally a month later.
PUBG Mobile was the second game Tencent launched in India and the company claims it has seen a good response with high average player times compared to other countries.
A few months later, Tencent hosted India's first official PUBG Mobile tournament with a 50 lakh prize pool. It was won by a Mumbai-based team called Terrifying Nightmares who got their start playing another battle royale game, Fortnite.
PUBG Mobile was recently “banned" in primary schools in Gujarat citing its "adverse effect on studies" after a recommendation by the Gujarat State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Should PUBG Mobile be banned in India? We discuss this on Transition, Gadgets 360's gaming podcast. You can listen to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS, or just listen to this week's episode by hitting the play button below.
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