Update: The unban seems to have gone through as Krafton took to social media to thank the Indian Government and announce that the game is coming back soon. Though the company has not announced a date for when the game will be made available again in the country yet.
Original story follows…
BGMI unban might be coming sooner than we expected if the latest report by News18 is to be believed. The News18report states that the government of India has decided to lift the ban on the popular online multiplayer battle royal game in India for three months.
For the uninitiated, the game was banned in the country in July 2022 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), as per the requests made by MHA. Soon after, the game was removed from Google Play Store and App Store on 28 July, causing a massive uproar in the BGMI fanbase in India. This new BGMI unban report is good news for its fans in the country.
BGMI is Temporarily Coming Back to India for 90 Days
Before it got banned in July 2022, Krafton announced that Battleground Mobile India had surpassed 100 million registered users in India. Notably, India was one of the biggest markets for the online multiplayer battle royale game. Therefore, when it was banned due to suspicious activities, there was a huge uproar among esports enthusiasts and fans of the game. Krafton even put in massive efforts to resume services in India but has yet to be successful. The game was removed from the Play Store and App Store in late July.
It seems that Krafton never gave up on its efforts to make a comeback in India. According to News18, the ban on the game is likely to be lifted for 90 days, according to sources. The report also reveals that during these three months of unbanning, the government of India will be closely scrutinising the app. The report quotes a top-level Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) official saying that the ministry will soon release an order to unban the app.
The same source also mentioned that the unban approval is conditional and subject to analysis and re-evaluation by Ministry of Home Affairs officials. The officials will check and scrutinise the game during the unban period to see if it abides by the Indian rules, failing which it will be banned again. According to the source, Krafton has assured that there will be a built-in timer to stop 24/7 gameplay. The developer has also committed to not showing blood in the game by changing the colour. Notably, previously there was a setting to change the blood colour from red to green or blue, but it will now be the default setting.
as for a concrete date — was to happen a month ago, idk what the hold up is
— 0xSkeptic | Cringe Connoisseur (@RishiAlwani) May 15, 2023
The news has also been confirmed by the Global Esports CEO Rushindra Sinha in a now-deleted tweet as reported by IGN India. Sinha tweeted that he has heard the biggest news about BGMI’s return to India. According to the tweet, it is something that even he didn’t expect but refrained from sharing any further details stating the confidentiality clause. Game industry expert, Rishi Alwani also confirmed the news and the conditions applied by the government to unban the app for 90 days. He further mentioned that the unban was expected to happen last month and he is not sure why it’s delayed.
However, at this point, neither Krafton nor the government of India has not made any announcements in this regard. It’s advised to take this report with a pinch of salt until an official announcement is issued.
