Bae Dong-geun, CFO of the South Korean gaming company Krafton, stated, on August 11, that the company will work closely with the Indian government to find a way to bring back the country’s suspended battle royale mobile game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI). During an earnings call, he said the company respects the country’s security concerns. 

On July 28, BGMI, the Indian version of popular battle royale game PUBG was removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store as a result of a government order under Information Technology Act, 2000. Additionally, the app was taken down from websites run by third parties, including BGMI’s own website and Codashop.

“We fully respect and understand the Indian government’s concern and as we have been directly running the service based on stringent data security standards and monitoring. We will closely cooperate with the authorities to find ways for the users in India to keep enjoying BGMI,” he said during the company’s earnings conference call.

The South Korean company Krafton’s flagship game PUBG was banned in September 2020 along with 117 other China-linked apps due to data security concerns, making this the second time that Krafton is dealing with a ban on a mobile game title in the country. 

Since then, Krafton has severed ties with its Chinese publishing partner Tencent and taken over all publishing duties in India. Additionally, it established a subsidiary and invested about $100 million in a number of local startups in industries like entertainment, esports, and video games.

Though there is no official response from the government. Minister of State for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar recently informed Moneycontrol that any app”sending data back in violation of our laws will be taken down. It has nothing to do with which country the app originated in.”

Prior to the ban, Krafton confirmed that in July, the number of BGMI users in India had surpassed 100 million. 

“In the second quarter, we broadened the user base through own and offline collaborations in the local market, and expanded monetized content offerings, providing a battle royale experience unique to BGMI”, Bae Dong-geun said during the call. Esports Premier League (ESPL) Season 2 was postponed owing to the ban last week.