South Korean video game developer Krafton today announced the date for pre-registrations of its much-awaited game: BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA, which is largely seen as a replacement for PUBG Mobile.
The original game was banned in India last September along with a number of other Chinese apps.
Pre-registrations for the game will go live tomorrow ( May 18th) on the Google Play Store.
There’s no word on when the game will release but it will likely be soon after the pre-registration link is live.
It is not clear when the game will release on iOS.
In a press statement, the company said it will have “specific rewards available for fans to claim, only if they pre-register the game.” These rewards would be specific to Indian players only.
In order to pre-register users will have to go to Google Play Store and click on the “Pre-Register” button. The rewards will automatically be available to claim on the game launch. The game will be free to play for all users with in-app purchases, as was previously seen in PUBG Mobile.
It looks like Krafton is trying to address issues around addiction when it comes to teenagers and younger audiences. In its privacy policy for the upcoming game, players below 18 years of age will have new restrictions. They will need to register for the game with a phone number that belongs to their parent or guardian. It is not clear how Battlegrounds Mobile India will verify the age and what process will be used.
Further, those who are under the age of 18 can only access the game for a maximum time limit of three hours every day. The developer is also restricting their spending limits. Previously, there were reports of teens spending lakhs of rupees on the game for in-app purchases. Now, it will be limited to Rs 7,000 per day for under 18 players, with regard to the in-app purchases.
Krafton is also trying to sort out the ‘privacy’ issues, which led to the eventual banning of gaming in India. The company says all personal information will be stored, processed on servers in India and Singapore, though it may transfer data to other countries to meet legal requirements.
While not much is known about the upcoming game and whether it will be really different from PUBG Mobile, Krafton posted a new teaser for the Sanhok map on the official Facebook page. The poster shows the Ban Tai map location from Sanhok, which is one of the 4×4 maps available in the game. The map was added to PUBG Mobile in September 2018. Based on the images shared so far, it looks like the game will be similar in design and spirit to the original PUBG Mobile with some tweaks for India
