PUBG Mobile country of origin: Is PUBG a Chinese game?

With people all over India standing united for boycotting Chinese products, gamers are worried about the true origin of the famous Battle Royale game, PUBG Mobile.

PUBG has often been referred to as the cricket of the esports world in India. Some people love it and some people are not into it but everyone knows about it.

While several people are of the opinion that PUBG is a South Korean game, many people believe that China enjoys the money earned from the game. Let us delve a little deeper into it.

Origin of the controversy

It all started when the relationship between China and India became sourer in the last few days. Popular engineer and education reformist, Sonam Wangchuk, the man who was the inspiration behind Phunsuk Wangdu in 3 Idioits, inspired people to boycott Chinese software in a week.

The gamers, especially mobile phone gamers, turned their attention towards PUBG Mobile and whether they should uninstall it.

PUBG's origin

Brendan Greene. Image: GamesIndustry.biz

The publication of PUBG can be traced back to Bluehole Studio, a South Korean gaming company. Bluehole Studio (now named as Krafton Game Union) was the holding company of PUBG Corporation who developed and published PUBG.

Brendan Greene was the man behind the game PUBG. After getting inspired after watching a Japanese movie Battle Royale, he decided to develop this game. You can be assured of this as his online handle is PlayerUnknown which inspired the name PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). Brendan Greene was born in Ireland.

The Confusion

Tencent Games. Image: Twitter.

The confusion started when PUBG was banned in China in 2017. This instigated Tencent Games, the video game publishing unit of Tencent Hodings, a Chinese company to secure the rights of distribution in China. It also planned on developing a mobile version of the game, and PUBG Mobile came into existence.

Now, this is where it gets tricky. Up until then, PUBG was a video game. It was Tencent Games who made a mobile version of PUBG and released it in China. This is the reason why you can see the Tencent Games logo as soon as you open the game, followed by PUBG Corporation.

Conclusion

PUBG Mobile gradually released worldwide in 2018 and took the market by storm. So, PUBG Mobile players will indeed be heartbroken to know that their favourite mobile game’s origin can be traced back to China. However, the origination of the video game PUBG cannot be traced back to China as it was in existence way before Tencent Games came into the picture.