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Just a few days ago, we reported that the Indian government had banned 118 Chinese apps. This included some prevalent ones, like Ludo World-Ludo Superstar, Rules of Survival, Creative Destruction and both PUBG smartphone titles. PUBG Mobile's ban was speculated over for quite some time, even if most players did not take the threat seriously.
PUBG Mobile was one of the most popular games in India, with a host of users in the teenage and 'young adult' categories. According to a Sensor Tower report in July, the game had been installed around 175 million times in the country!
Regardless, in the aftermath of the ban, Indian gamers have taken to the internet to find viable alternatives. Of course, there are quite a few Indian games that can effectively replace PUBG Mobile.
Furthermore, we saw popular actor Akshay Kumar announce a new alternative called FAU-G (Fearless and United Guards). The game is set to release in October, and was announced within days of the PUBG Mobile ban.
You can see the tweet posted by Vishal Gondal, the founder of nCore Games, who are also the developers if FAU-G, below:
FAU-G announcement days after PUBG Mobile ban wasn't planned, say nCore
Of course, Kumar had explained in his announcement tweet that through the game, players would learn about Indian soldiers' achievements, while 20% of the total earnings will go to a relevant charity.
While the initiative itself is rather commendable, various people were convinced that the convenient timing of the announcement is an apparent attempt to milk as much money and support for the app as possible. It is also no secret that the community has been extra supportive of the new game because of the ongoing tensions between India and China.
Regardless of whether the title proves to be a decent alternative to PUBG Mobile or not, it is undoubtedly going to be well-received due to the support it has garnered from mainstream media, Bollywood personalities, and well, the government.
However, Gondal recently said the nCore team had been working on the game since May/June, and were anyhow preparing for an October release. He further stated that the PUBG Mobile ban was merely a coincidence, in a statement to The Indian Express, where he said:
"FAU-G was always in the pipeline and we were preparing for an October release. The ban on PUBG Mobile was coincidental. There’s a belief that Indian game developers can’t produce good quality games, at nCore we want to prove that mentality wrong and bring out games that can compete with international games. Our team of developers are highly qualified and capable of developing games as good as PUBG or any other internal games."
Of course, while the entire PUBG Mobile ban may have been a case of wrong timng, it is sure to help FAU-G when the game is eventually released.
