PUBG Corporation is in early talks with telecom company Airtel to distribute PUBG Mobile in India, while talks with Reliance concerning a distribution deal related to its Jio platform have slowed, according to a report in Entrackr.
“PUBG is in early conversation with Airtel for handing over distribution rights to the telecom giant. This desperation shows that PUBG has been trying hard to get back into the Indian market,” a source told the publication on the condition of anonymity.
“The gaming platform is also busy in raising a lean team in India. It has been interviewing candidates with experience of under 4 to 6 years,” the source added.
The source also said that talks with Reliance to distribute the game in india through its Jio platform had slowed. In September a source within the Indian government confirmed that talks between PUBG Corp. and Reliance were in fact happening. That same source also indicated that the government had no plans to lift the ban on the game anytime soon, adding that there had been complaints about the game being “too violent.”
PUBG Mobile was banned on Sept. 2 in India, along with 117 other mobile phone apps that have ties to Chinese developers or publishers. At the time the popular mobile battle royale game was being published in India by Tencent Games. The ban was precipitated by border tensions between India and China.
The Entrackr report also noted that since the ban of the game, PUBG Mobile downloads declined 26% globally in the month of September, according to Sensor Tower Data.
Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly referred to as Airtel, is an Indian global telecommunications services company based in New Delhi, India, and operates in multiple countries across South Asia and Africa.
The Esports Observer has reached out to PUBG Corp. and Airtel for comment and will update this story should more information become available.
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