Battleground Mobile: A Replica of PUBG, With Minor Tweaks

The Quint got an early access to the game and found the Battleground Mobile India experience is just like PUBG.

The pre-registration for the game began on 18 May and received an overwhelmingly positive response.

(Photo Courtesy: PUBG Mobile/ Altered by The Quint)

Early Access to Battlegrounds Mobile India went live on Thursday, 17 June. However, only a few people in the country were given access to the game as it is still in its beta mode of development.

The pre-registration for the game began on 18 May and received an overwhelmingly positive response. Several media reports claimed that the game would be available starting tomorrow, but it looks like the game developers will test out the game in India for some more time before rolling it out officially for everyone.

The Quint got an early access to the game and spotted that Battleground Mobile India is a replica of PUBG Mobile with minor tweaks in the features.

What's Similar?

If you're a PUBG Mobile fan, right from when you open the game, everything will be familiar to you.

After logging in with your previous PUBG Mobile credentials, you are greeted with the same home screen and background music as PUBG Mobile.

If you create a new account, you'll be asked to choose a character to play the game, similar to PUBG Mobile.

You will get to transfer your in-game data over from PUBG Mobile. This includes all the items that you owned.

There are prompts asking if you are over 18 and if you reside in India, and unfortunately at this stage it appears you can simple respond to this with 'yes', without any verification needed.

The game then goes into auto mode and forces you to complete the training incase you don't create a new account.

You will have the option to choose between Classic, Arcade, EveGround and Arena.

Erangel, Sanhok, Miramar , and all other maps in Battlegrounds Mobile India is exactly same as PUBG Mobile. You pick up familiar weapons and equipment, using the same customisable controls.

What's Different?

After playing the game for a while, we can conclude that there is no gameplay difference between Battleground Mobile and PUBG India.

However, the developers added a few feature such as:

• While playing the game, you will hear safe gaming narration stating this is a simulation, it does not represent real life, and to not spend long hours playing
• The game being exclusive to India which means that you won't be able to play with gamers across the world. You won't be able to switch between servers.
• The blood in-game is now green instead of red. On the top left where it showed the number of players that are ‘Alive' and the number of players you've ‘Killed', now shows ‘Alive' and ‘Finished'

Updated Privacy Policy

The game's privacy policy is now live. Here's what information it collects from you:

• Nickname to create a character in-game
• Nickname, email address, name, phone number, date of birth, etc to register for tournament(s) or e-sports event
• Nickname, email address, name, phone numbers, etc. to provide customer service
• Nickname, email address, name, phone number, gender, age, country of residence, etc for participation in survey(s), and other events
• Device information (including IP address, device ID, device model, network type, OS version, time zone settings, screen resolution, etc.
• Data from gameplay
• Device event information, including crash reports and system activity details (eg whether you encountered an error playing our games or lost Internet access)

Users personal information will now be stored and processed on servers located in India and Singapore.

However, the game states that it might transfer users’ data to other countries to meet legal requirements.

"In the event of transfer to another country or region, we will take steps to ensure that your information receives the same level of protection as if it remained in India," the privacy policy reads.

'No Permission Granted to Battleground Mobile India': IT Ministry

An RTI applications filed by a critic, Dr Gaurav Tyagi, an assistant professor at JNU, revealed that the government did not give any permission to the game.

Responding to the RTI, the IT ministry said, "Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has no role in granting any permission for entry of PUBG or any company/Mobile app in India."

This means that Krafton developers did not take any formal permission to launch the game in India.

It should be noted that MeiTy can still ban the game, but only once it is launched under the provisions of section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the RTI further states.