PUBG has been temporarily suspended in Pakistan after a 16-year old boy has killed himself. The regulatory authority
Popularity of PUBG
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is an online multiplayer battle royale game developed and published by PUBG Corporation, a South Korean video game company Bluehole. In the game, up to one hundred players parachute onto an island and scavenge for weapons and equipment to kill others while avoiding getting killed themselves. The available safe area of the game’s map decreases in size over time, directing surviving players into tighter areas to force encounters. The last player or team standing wins the round.
“The launch of Jio services brought this revolutionary change. The makers of PUBG couldn’t have asked for a better time to launch in India than in 2018,” a recent blog post by Gurugram-based video analytics firm Vidooly stated.
The game is available only on smartphones, the device most Indians use to get on the game. Nearly 80% of data consumed in India is via mobile phones, and the number of smartphone users in the country is set to double in four years.
India’s gaming community is also robust: In 2016, it was 120 million strong; the market is estimated to be worth $1.1 billion by 2020.
Lately, PUBG has been embroidered in controversies where users are spending too much time on the platform and experiencing a disconnect with the real world. This creates issues when the target clientele of PUBG ranges from users who are young enough that they go to school to users who are now retired.
PUBG Mobile, according to the reports, adversely affects the mental health of players. It has also resulted in low academic grades of students.
After a severe backlash, the game developer has finally spoken about the problem and said that it is working to foster a healthy and balanced in-game environment.
PUBG has now decided to implement a digital lock for its users under 13 years of age. The digital lock system will lock out players under the age of 13, and they would have to ask their guardians or parents to open the game for them.
