New Delhi: The South Korean giant Krafton announced on Friday that it had obtained approval from the Indian authorities to resume operations of the video game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).

The company plans to make the title available for download in South Asian markets “soon”.

“We are very grateful to the Indian authorities for allowing us to resume operations of Battlegrounds Mobile India. We would like to thank our Indian gaming community for their support and patience over the past few months,” said Sean Hyunil Sohn, CEO of Krafton India, in a statement.

“We are delighted to announce that Battlegrounds Mobile India will soon be available for download and we look forward to welcoming you back to our platform. We are committed to providing excellent products and services to our users in India and beyond, and we look forward to continuing our journey with you,” he added.

The move comes less than two years after the Indian government banned the Krafton marquee offering PUBG in the country.

This happened in September 2020 when the Indian government banned PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile, along with 117 Chinese apps, citing threats to India’s sovereignty, integrity and defense under the 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000.

PUBG then had almost 33 million users in the country and was growing rapidly.

In November 2020, it was first revealed that PUBG Mobile would be relaunched in India under the new entity “PUBG Mobile India”.

In the same month, PUBG Studios and South Korean video game company Krafton registered PUBG India Private Ltd with the Ministry of Commercial Affairs to relaunch PUBG Mobile in the country.

Krafton announced the launch of the BGMI game in May 2021. The game was finally released on July 2 for Android devices and August 18 for iOS devices.

In one year, BGMI exceeded 100 million registered users.

Later, the Indian government ordered Google and Apple to block the BGMI gaming app from their respective online stores.

Google and Apple have removed popular battle royale game BGMI from their respective app stores.

The ban is under section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000.

Non-profit organization Prahar claims that BGMI is no different from previous PUBG as it “threatens India’s sovereignty and integrity, India’s defence, state security and the ‘public order”.