Four Things BGMI Needs to Do if it Gets Unbanned

The Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) was one of the most unexpected happenings in Indian esports. On 28th July, when the fans were expecting an announcement regarding Battlegrounds Mobile India Series 2022, the game was suddenly removed from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. While our sources close to Krafton later confirmed that the game has been temporarily suspended, not permanently banned in India. News18’s reported that the game was banned following a report by a central intelligence agency that indicated that the game was sharing user data with servers located in China.

BGMI was allegedly under the Indian government’s radar for almost five months. If the game gets unbanned in the future, the developers will have to bring some serious changes to avoid further suspension of it. Here are three changes that BGMI needs to make if it makes a comeback.

BGMI needs to be completely isolated from PUBG Mobile:

Battlegrounds Mobile India and PUBG Mobile share very similar content. Collaborations with major entities including BLACKPINK, and Godzilla vs Kong all take place in BGMI right when it takes place in PUBG Mobile.

Whether it’s in-game updates, collaborations, or outfits, there isn’t much difference between the two titles. Krafton needs to completely isolate BGMI from PUBG Mobile like Tencent did with Game For Peace in China. When PUBG Mobile was banned in China, Tencent Games launched Game For Peace with Chinese-specific content while maintaining the battle royale theme of the game.

However, the game receives content that is primarily unique to itself. The same needs to apply for BGMI, where native content is coded specifically for the game.

Remove the unwanted PUBG Mobile text from the game:

It has been evident that whenever there is an update in BGMI, some elements from PUBG Mobile make their way into the game which later gets removed with a small patch update. However, the existence of PUBG Mobile text has been there in BGMI right from the beginning when the game was launched. In fact, the OBB files of the game have a folder named “com.pubg.imobile” which raises further questions about whether the game is just a clone of PUBG Mobile.

Focus more on Indian-specific content:

Apart from the voice packs of popular Indian streamers and players, the game lacks Indian-specific content. Even during the first anniversary of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), there wasn’t any special mode or collaboration with Indian-specific brands to make the event more engaging for the Indian players. Hence, the BGMI developers would need to emphasize more on pushing the Indian-specific content to engage with the local audience.

Ensure that data isn’t sent to Chinese servers:

The primary reason behind BGMI’s ban according to a New18 report is that the game is suspected of transferring Indian user data to Chinese servers. The game will likely not be unbanned if it is found guilty of doing so.

But if it proves to be innocent, then the game needs to ensure that the game continues to adhere to data privacy regulations as long as it exists within the Indian esports ecosystem.

While the above points might not be the reason behind BGMI’s sudden removal from the Indian Play Store and App Store, making these changes will help optics and further distance the game from its Chinese roots and the banned PUBG Mobile.