How Microsoft Azure will play a crucial role in PUBG Mobile's India comeback

The inevitable return of PUBG Mobile in India has sparked a lot of commotion amongst the community, and the hype doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.

The game is yet to go live in the nation, and many PUBG Mobile fans are wondering just how the Battle Royale is being able to wriggle its way back in after getting a nation-wide ban.

Well, all thanks to Microsoft Azure, and the genius on KRAFTON’s part was to partner with the company and allow it to host its portfolio of multiplatform products.

To those unaware, KRAFTON “is a collective of independent game development teams responsible for various entertainment properties, including PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS and TERA.”

So, them tying the knot with Microsoft Azure ensures a significant upgrade in the server and player data security, which was the major reason behind PUBG Mobile getting banned in the first place.

Microsoft Azure will help PUBG Mobile get a one-way-ticket back into India

Image via PUBG Mobile

Microsoft Azure is a cloud hosting platform which is known for its incredible security measures. Azure is often:

“described as a 'cloud layer' on top of a number of Windows Server systems, which use Windows Server 2008 and a customized version of Hyper-V, known as the Microsoft Azure Hypervisor to provide virtualization of services.”

Moreover, Azure also uses a specialized operating system, which is also called ‘Microsoft Azure,’ that manages the computing and storage of resources on Microsoft’s data centers. This is what primarily keeps the data, such as servers and user information, secure.

And it is this security that is integral to PUBG Mobile’s return to India.

The Battle Royale was banned on the 2nd of September 2020, and it came as a backdrop to the ensuing tension that was taking place between India and China near the Himalayan border.

This international incident prompted India's IT Ministry to clamp down on the apps that had major Chinese backers: PUBG Mobile, TikTok, Rules of Survival, nothing was spared.

When talking about the reason behind the ban, the IT Ministry cited security concerns, and in one of their statements, they said that,

"misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India."

"The compilation of this data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defense of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures."

Security breach of user data was cited as the major reason behind the PUBG Mobile ban. With the game’s devs cutting ties with Tencent (only for the Indian market) and KRAFTON tying up with Microsoft Azure, PUBG Mobile can finally come back to India.

With no Chinese backers and the promise of secure and robust hosting servers, PUBG Mobile is all set for a strong comeback in India.