BGMI Ban: Indian Esports Industry stakeholders share their thought on game removal

BGMI Ban: Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) was removed from the Google Play store and Apple App store last night. Krafton’s Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) surpassed 100 million registered users in July 2022. A statement from Google reveals that the Government of India orders Google Play Store to take down Battlegrounds Mobile India, the famous Battle Royale title due to security concerns. Here is more information about the gaming title and its removal. For future updates on BGMI Ban, follow InsideSport.IN.

Battlegrounds Mobile India (Image via Krafton)

In the last year, Krafton, Inc. invested nearly 100 million USD to improve India’s local video game, Esports, and entertainment startups to build a healthy gaming start-up ecosystem.

$22.5 million in Nodwin Gaming in March 2021
$9 million in Loco in June 2021
$48 million in Pratilipi in July 2021
$6.5 million in Frnd in December 2021
$5.4 million in Nautilus Mobile in February 2022
$7 million in Kuku FM in March 2022
Investment of an undisclosed amount in Lila Games in March 2022

Also Read: BGMI Ban: MortaL, Scout, Ghatak, and Streaming Platform, Loco react to the removal of BGMI, CHECK DETAILS

BGMI Ban: Indian Esports Industry stakeholders share their thought on Battlegrounds Mobile India Ban

Apart from the publisher’s official tournaments, plenty of Indian esports organizations were also organizing multiple BGMI tournaments with massive prize pools such as ongoing BGMI ESPL Season 2. The game is a major revenue source for esports organizations, teams, live streamers, esports players, and gaming content creators in India. Banning the game will be a setback for those organizations, players, streamers, and everyone who is related to the BGMI industry.

Mr Lokesh Suji, Director, Esports Federation of India & Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation (AESF):

This is too early to comment and we should wait for the official statement from the Government or the publisher to know more about this matter. India is paving its path to becoming a multi-sport nation where every sport is getting the right visibility, audience, and investment to grow. We have to reflect the same in Esports where we need to start giving exposure to multi Esports titles and not limited to one. With so much attention on every front including the government, It’s also high time our Indian Video game developers speed up the process to launch world-class esports video game titles.

Mr Vishwalok Nath, Director, Esports Premier League:

We are yet to receive an official statement from the Government on the reason behind the removal of the game from the Play Store and App Store. This is between the publisher and the government and we hope this issue will be resolved soon. For BGMI ESPL Season 2, it’s a wait-and-watch time to take further decisions.

BGMI Ban (Image via Krafton)

Rohit Jagasia, Founder & CEO, Revenant Esports:

The BGMI BAN will definitely be a setback for all major stakeholders like Tournament Organizations, Esports Teams, Coaches, Support Staff, and most importantly Athletes. However, at Revenant Esports, we will still be supporting our BGMI Athletes and make sure they use our training facility to create content and try their hand at different games. With that being said, the entire industry will take a hit but Revenant was built during the first stint of the Ban and we have always believed in diversification. We have always believed in diversification and will continue to do so, we are optimistic about supporting our BGMI Athletes during these trying times.

Mr Sagar Nair, Co-Founder & CEO, Qlan, The Gamer’s Social Network:

As the official statement is yet to come on the removal of the game, if this game removal will stay for some time then it will be damaging to the ever-growing Indian esports ecosystem. It’s not just about one game but with the kind of popularity, player base and viewership BGMI has, it is leading the biggest esports title in India. Looking at it from a sports lens, although we are a multi-sport nation, cricket enjoys the biggest chunk of revenue and viewership source in our country. This potential stay will hamper the whole esports ecosystem – consumers, businesses, stakeholders, jobs, and much more. There is a large investment riding on startups, tournaments and game streaming, it’s a trickle effect waiting to happen.

Rohit Agarwal, Founder & Director, Alpha Zegus, the next-gen marketing agency specializing in the domains of gaming & lifestyle:

All we know is that such occurrences are becoming more common by the year, and are happening without any foresight. Not very long ago, we saw a wave of China-based apps getting banned overnight, and also saw the likes of Free Fire getting the red flag – all happening without any prior warnings. Also, with the recent incident of a boy killing his mother over a BGMI argument, the game had yet again come under the radar of the government and marked as “unsafe for young adults”. Similar incidents of arguments and damages due to the game have arisen in the past.

Government is yet to release an official statement in terms of the reasoning behind the ban (considering Krafton had taken almost all possible precautions to launch the game within set guidelines) but what we have realized by now is mobile games are becoming more unpredictable by the day. I hope a regulatory body comes into play that monitors the games over time, instead of banning them overnight.

The government of India hasn’t made any official announcement yet, as well as Krafton, the publisher of the game.

Esports