Battlegrounds Mobile India

 Battlegrounds Mobile India (in short form BGMI, previously known as PUBG Mobile India) is an indian version of PUBG Mobile, exclusively for players in India.It is an online multiplayer battle royale game developed and published by Krafton. The game released on 2 July 2021 for Android devices, and on 18 August 2021 for iOS devices.

Gameplay

Battlegrounds Mobile India is a player versus player shooter game in which up to one hundred players fight in a battle royale, a type of large-scale last man standing deathmatch where players fight to remain the last alive. Players can choose to enter the match solo, or as a small team of upto four.

Each match starts with players parachuting from a plane onto one of the six maps:

• Erangel (Themed / Normal)
• Miramar
• Sanhok
• Vikendi
• Livik (Themed / Normal)
• Karakin

The plane's flight path across the map varies with each round, requiring players to quickly determine the best time to eject and parachute to the ground. Players start with no gear beyond customized clothing selections which do not affect gameplay. Once they land on the ground, players can search buildings, ghost towns and other sites to find weapons, vehicles, armor, and other equipment. These items are procedurally distributed throughout the map at the start of a match, with certain high-risk zones typically having better equipment. Finished players can be looted to acquire their gear as well. Players can opt to play either from the first-person or third-person perspective, each having their own advantages and disadvantages in combat and situational awareness; though server-specific settings can be used to force all players into one perspective to eliminate some advantages.

Every few minutes, the playable area of the map begins to shrink down towards a random location, with any player caught outside the safe area taking damage incrementally, and eventually being eliminated if the safe zone is not entered in time; in game, the players see the boundary as a shimmering blue wall that contracts over time. This results in a more confined map, in turn increasing the chances of encounters. During the course of the match, random regions of the map are highlighted in red and bombed, posing a threat to players who remain in that area. In both cases, players are warned a few minutes before these events, giving them time to relocate to safety. A plane will fly over various parts of the playable map occasionally at random, or wherever a player uses a flare gun, and drop a loot package, containing items which are typically unobtainable during normal gameplay. These packages emit highly visible red or yellow smoke, drawing interested players near it and creating further confrontations. On average, a full round takes around 30 minutes.

At the completion of each round, players gain in-game currency based on their performance. The currency can be used to purchase in-game cosmetic items.

Development

On 2 September 2020, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India banned PUBG Mobile along with 117 Chinese applications stating that the apps were engaged in activities which were prejudicial and threat to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state and public order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.November 2020, it was reported that PUBG Mobile was going to be relaunched in India, named as PUBG Mobile India. On 24 November 2020, a news published on The Times of India reported that PUBG Studios and South Korea’s video game company Krafton Inc. have registered PUBG India Private Limited under Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India to relaunch PUBG Mobile in India.

In May 2021, it was reported that PUBG Mobile was being rebranded as Battlegrounds Mobile India to enter in the Indian gaming market. After that on 7 May 2021, a news by The Indian Express reported that, Krafton confirmed in a press statement that they were going to launch Battlegrounds Mobile India, a similar game to PUBG Mobile.

Release

The game was announced on 6 May 2021. The pre-registrations of the game were started for Android users on 18 May 2021and early access beta version of the game was released on 17 June 2021 only for Android users. The game released on 2 July 2021 for Android devices, and on 18 August 2021 for iOS devices

After the early beta release for Android users, on 21 June 2021, IGN India first reported that the data regarding users' Android device was being sent to Tencent-owned China servers. "The one reason behind this could be because of PUBG Mobile account transfer feature that Krafton is allowing BGMI players to transfer their account and game data from PUBG Mobile to BGMI till December 2021," reported The Times of India.After this data sharing violation, Krafton, the developer of Battlegrounds Mobile India released a short in-game update on 22 June 2021 to fix this data sharing issue with China-located servers. However, it was also reported that the game may ping to Chinese servers if a user deletes the application data.