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MUMBAI: For very personal reasons, mass communication student Siddhartha did not crack up at the memes showing parents crying tears of joy after the government banned PUBG, the most downloaded video game in India. Just 10 days ago, the game had made Siddharth aka Razor, shave off a chunk of his bank account to buy a Rs 53,000 phone. Practising on the device, he had hoped, would speed up his ascent from an “underdog” e-sports player who earns pocket money from unofficial PUBG tournaments to top-notch professional gamer who brings home enough to earn the approval of his “typical Indian parents”.
So, for this 20-year-old who spent 10 hours a day shouting instructions and cuss words into his microphone, the move to ban the app cuts deep as, well, a razor. “I am shocked,” he says.
The government on Wednesday banned 118 Chinese-linked mobile applications citing safety and security of Indian cyberspace. Just as the earlier ban on video-sharing app TikTok had many influencers in a fix, the crackdown on PUBG leaves a hole in the lives of hardcore gamers, some of whom are said to earn up to Rs 90,000 a month from PUBG tournaments. PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) not only served as the go-to virtual social glue to millions of teens and young millennials during the lockdown, but also boasted an e-sports eco-system in India teeming with international money and designations ranging from “customs managers” to “analytics coaches”.
E-sports firms are choosing to perceive the move -that came three days after PM Narendra Modi’s broadcast urging the youth of the country “to make games in India and make games based on India”-as a “temporary setback” and an “opportunity” for other games to be discovered.
“This may seem like a loss to the e-sports community,” says Yash Pariani, CEO, Indian Gaming League, an e-sports league that hosts gaming tournaments. “However, in the interest of national security, the country must take whatever precautions they deem necessary,” he adds. Pointing out influencers and players may now switch to other multiplayer mobile games to fill the void, Pariani says we may see the birth of a homegrown version. The prophecy finds an echo in Saksham Keshri, founder of game-streaming platform Rheo, who is hopeful a “decent” number of made-in-India games and gaming companies will now rise.
Perhaps the ban may even finally make India embrace PC games, predicts Anish Prasad aka Inferno, manager of a PUBG team called Devil’s Rage. “With many buying laptops and desktops for online school, there is a chance many PC games will become popular,” says Prasad, adding at the moment, the market for PC games isn’t too big. As someone who managed a ‘tier 1’ PUBG team till January, Prasad has had a front row seat to PUBG tournaments whose budgets ran up to Rs 1 lakh.
Hrishikesh Deshpande, 32, an ace-level “crown” player of PUBG, says he is able to exercise restraint, but Santa Cruz’s Nathan John, 17, is friends with addicts who would “probably have fits” among other withdrawal symptoms. “The app had updated its privacy policy after recent crackdowns so we thought it would be safe,” says John, who has not only moved on to playing PUBG’s spiritual cousin ‘Call Of Duty’, but also made peace with the fact that the phrase “chicken dinner”-the ultimate prize for PUBG winners-will no longer taste like victory in his house.
So, for this 20-year-old who spent 10 hours a day shouting instructions and cuss words into his microphone, the move to ban the app cuts deep as, well, a razor. “I am shocked,” he says.
The government on Wednesday banned 118 Chinese-linked mobile applications citing safety and security of Indian cyberspace. Just as the earlier ban on video-sharing app TikTok had many influencers in a fix, the crackdown on PUBG leaves a hole in the lives of hardcore gamers, some of whom are said to earn up to Rs 90,000 a month from PUBG tournaments. PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) not only served as the go-to virtual social glue to millions of teens and young millennials during the lockdown, but also boasted an e-sports eco-system in India teeming with international money and designations ranging from “customs managers” to “analytics coaches”.
E-sports firms are choosing to perceive the move -that came three days after PM Narendra Modi’s broadcast urging the youth of the country “to make games in India and make games based on India”-as a “temporary setback” and an “opportunity” for other games to be discovered.
“This may seem like a loss to the e-sports community,” says Yash Pariani, CEO, Indian Gaming League, an e-sports league that hosts gaming tournaments. “However, in the interest of national security, the country must take whatever precautions they deem necessary,” he adds. Pointing out influencers and players may now switch to other multiplayer mobile games to fill the void, Pariani says we may see the birth of a homegrown version. The prophecy finds an echo in Saksham Keshri, founder of game-streaming platform Rheo, who is hopeful a “decent” number of made-in-India games and gaming companies will now rise.
Perhaps the ban may even finally make India embrace PC games, predicts Anish Prasad aka Inferno, manager of a PUBG team called Devil’s Rage. “With many buying laptops and desktops for online school, there is a chance many PC games will become popular,” says Prasad, adding at the moment, the market for PC games isn’t too big. As someone who managed a ‘tier 1’ PUBG team till January, Prasad has had a front row seat to PUBG tournaments whose budgets ran up to Rs 1 lakh.
Hrishikesh Deshpande, 32, an ace-level “crown” player of PUBG, says he is able to exercise restraint, but Santa Cruz’s Nathan John, 17, is friends with addicts who would “probably have fits” among other withdrawal symptoms. “The app had updated its privacy policy after recent crackdowns so we thought it would be safe,” says John, who has not only moved on to playing PUBG’s spiritual cousin ‘Call Of Duty’, but also made peace with the fact that the phrase “chicken dinner”-the ultimate prize for PUBG winners-will no longer taste like victory in his house.
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