Negative reports about the mobile game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (Mobile) have been coming from India since 2019: The game has been banned in India since September 2020 because it is said to be sending data to China. Terrible news is regularly circulating in the Indian media, intended to show how dangerous and addictive the game is – especially for young men.
This is the message: The “Times of India” reports on an incident in the Indian city of Bhaglabur, a city of around 410,000 inhabitants (via timesofindia).
The parents of 17-year-old Roshan Kumar were concerned for their son because he didn’t come out of his room when the call to dinner was made on Friday. When the boy hadn’t left his room on Saturday either, the door was forced open and the young man was found hanged in his room.
The Times of India reports from the family: They believe their son killed himself because he lost a match in PUBG Mobile. It is said that he was always very angry about this. The family suspects that such a defeat could have happened to the boy on Friday evening. According to other sources cited by the site, the boy was “addicted to PUBG.”
However, as other sources on the site report, the boy is said to have been unhappily in love with a young woman who rejected him. This rejection made him so sad.
The boy’s father said: He himself and his elder son had been busy delivering newspapers since early that morning. He could not say anything about the death of his son.
Important NOTE: If dark thoughts are plaguing you: you are not alone. Please get help. For example, with the telephone pastoral care on 0800/111 0 111 or the online pastoral care, where you can also use a chat. It’s free and applies nationwide.
Horror reports about PUBG have been coming from India since 2019
What is it with PUBG and India? The game “PUBG Mobile” takes a special role in the Indian media.
Actually, India is not a computer market, hardly anyone owns a PC or console there, but people have smartphones. PUBG was primarily a PC hit here in the West until Fortnite replaced it in 2018, but the mobile variant has become extremely popular in India.
At the beginning of the PUBG hype in India, there was still quite bizarre news: In May 2019, it was said from India that a groom was so fascinated by PUBG that he even preferred to play PUBG at his own wedding and ignored his bride.
A little later, in the summer of 2019, PUBG seemed to become a thorn in the side of the authorities and media in India: reports kept appearing that young people became so addicted to PUBG Mobile that they died:
All of this is seen in the Indian media as evidence that PUBG is addictive and violent, with US media raising doubts about the direction of the coverage. For example, it is known that train deaths are widespread in India. In 2012 alone, 15,000 people died crossing the train tracks.
PUBG Mobile has already been banned twice in India
How is the government dealing with PUBG Mobile? The game was banned in India in September 2020 because it was suspected that it could send strategically important data to China. The game was said to endanger national security.
Then there was a special version for India “Battlegrounds Mobile India”, but that was also banned in July 2022.