'One door closes, another opens': PUBG army in dismay following the govt ban

On Wednesday evening, mobile phone gamers in India received a much-anticipated but nevertheless painful blow: the ban on popular game PUBG.

"One door closes, another opens," wrote "Mortal" alias Naman Mathur on Twitter following the ban. "Mortal" is among the internet video streamers who emerged highly popular with over six million subscribers on Youtube and millions viewing the videos.

In one of the live streams, Mathur seemed hopeful. "Nothing is greater than my country," the Indian Express quotes him in a report.

The gaming and esports community expressed disappointment over the government's move, especially when Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mann Ki Baat, his radio address to the nation on Sunday emphasized on gaming sector. He had encouraged the youth of the country to make games in India and about India.

Abhijeet Andhare, an esports Athlete at TSM, a premier esports team, pointed out government's focus on creating jobs in the gaming sector and said that banning a game would hurt gaming aspirants in the country. "PuBg created hope for a millions of kids around the country," he wrote on Twitter tagging PM Modi and Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju.

Varun Bhavnani, director of Entity Gaming, an esports organisation, highlighted the ban's impact on international competitions. “We are still waiting. We are hopeful that there will be some concessions by the government for competitive players, that these teams are allowed to participate. The tournaments are still going on, and the ban will have some adverse effect,” he told the publication.

Varun also encouraged for indigenous development of games and urged Indian developers to make the most of the opportunity. He said, since PUBG is banned in China itself, it opens the room for India. "This is a chance for us to rise as an army. We have the best developers and programmers. We need to create something of our own and throw it in China’s face,” he said.

The mobile game PUBG was one of the 118 Chinese apps banned by the Ministry of Information and Technology citing security concerns under section 69A of the Information Technology Act with relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009. Wednesday's move marks the second episode of the government's ban on Chinese mobile apps, the previous move included the widely popular and now controversial app TikTok.

PUBG, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate Tencent, had evolved from being merely a mobile game into a major driver in video streaming revenues. In India, too, several YouTubers and content creators rely on PUBG for revenues. Beyond monetary impact, PUBG streaming which is ubiquitous to Youtube across the world and particularly in India, who has had a smartphone boom in the past few years, the ban will also likely dissolve the online community of millions.