Player’s Unknown Battlegrounds, or PUBG, was released for mobile devices in early 2018. Initially released as a PC game, PUBG caught the attention of gamers worldwide, breaking streaming records on Twitch and viewership numbers on YouTube. But with time, more companies started producing Battle Royale games which were way better and more fast-paced than PUBG, and masses of players shifted to these games as the PC PUBG was becoming bland and uninteresting, leading to a considerable drop in its concurrent player base.
But PUBG Mobile was roaring with success as a Chinese Mobile game studio developed it, and they kept adding more and more features to this game to appeal to audiences in Asia, Specifically in South Asia. India was one of those countries that spawned countless streamers and players for the PUBG mobile, and things were looking good until the Indian Government banned it for suspected data sharing and mining, hurting their national interests.
Krafton, a behemoth South Korean game development studio that owned rights to the original PUBG, decided to develop a version of the game called “Battleground Mobile India” or “BGMI” to cater to the large player base of India. Krafton has since invested a lot of money in game development programs in India which have been growing and populating the local and international app stores with many new games.
Recently, Karfton has announced to invest around 150 million Dollars into the gaming industry of India to aid the growth of the gaming development boom in India. All of this was made possible by the successful trials of BGMI in India. Krafton has been very happy with the success of BGMI in India, and they plan to create a platform for mutual growth of the gaming industry in both countries.
South Korean investments benefit everyone as they don’t practice simple financial aid or backing; they lend their services, knowledge, and expertise to the companies they are partnering with to ensure mutual growth. Krafton CEO Sean Hyunil stated that “We trust Indian IPs to produce and develop great titles, and our pledge to invest 150$ million into the Indian gaming industry is to fuel the local gaming industry and nurture local gaming talent.”
India has become one of the world’s largest economies due to their IT exports and has developed a name for itself in IT development and computer science. It isn’t surprising that prominent gaming studios like Krafton plan to invest in that market and capitalize on the ever-growing expertise of Indian developers and game studios.
This is significant and optimistic news for gamers in India as Krafton Studios is going hard with their game releases and pulling excellent sales numbers on multiple platforms. They recently published some new games like The Callisto Protocol, Defense Derby, and Road to Valor: Empires which have gotten decent reviews and have been loved by many.
