“Moving forward, PUBG Corporation will take on all publishing responsibilities within the country,” it said. “As the company explores ways to provide its own PUBG experience for India in the near future, it is committed to doing so by sustaining a localized and healthy gameplay environment for its fans.”

Since June, India has banned 177 China-linked apps. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology says it is doing so “in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India and security of the State.” It has expressed concern over how user data is used and stored. 

The US is also considering banning apps with links to China. President Trump ordered TikTok owner ByteDance to sell off its US business and issued an executive order to ban Tencent’s WeChat. The orders will most likely be challenged in court and complicated by the fact that Tencent has investments in several US companies, including Snapchat’s parent company, Riot Games and Epic Games. It also publishes PUBG Mobile in the US.

The livestream mostly kept mum about new gameplay details; But it did promise a “mysterious surprise” that will be kept under wraps until the update goes live.

When it comes to its esports tournament, PUBG Mobile will be combining the existing World League and World Championship into one large “mega event,” said James Yang, Director of PUBG Mobile Global Esports. Pro teams from regions around the world will compete in the PUBG Mobile Global Championship, to be held in November. Due to coronavirus conditions influencing the unprecedented nature of the tournament, Yang said, this season has been dubbed “season zero.” The prize pool will be worth $2 million — the most PUBG Mobile has ever paid out.

PUBG Mobile earned $1.3 billion in 2019, according to data from Sensor Tower. Many businesses have taken a hit this year due to the pandemic, but games have still been selling. Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is seeing more competition than ever before and losing traction on PC and consoles, thanks to the rise of other battle royale games like Fortnite. Considering this competition, plus Fortnite creator Epic Games’ current beef with Apple and Google, PUBG Mobile may be positioned to keep doing well.

For the first time in two-year history, PUBG Mobile is getting an exclusive map. Android and iOS users can check out the battle royale’s new Livik battleground starting today. With a playspace limited to about four square kilometers, Tencent says most matches on the Nordic-themed level should take about 15 minutes, making it perfect for short play sessions. 

Players will find new weapons and vehicles that are only available on Livik. For a limited time, there will also be special “experimental” firearms scattered across the level. These will fit into archetypes players are already familiar with, but they’ll feature modified names, icons and finishes. They’ll also do more damage than their regular counterparts, so finding one early could give you an edge through the rest of a match.  

These bots will only appear in normal games, and will crop up more infrequently as a player’s skill increases. Their actions are limited to basics such as walk, run, crouch and shoot, as well as basic low height parkour, swimming, parachuting and looting. They can only join normal matching games — so there won’t ever be any bots in your party, nor will you be placed on a team with bots — and most importantly, actions against bots are counted towards missions, survival and weapon mastery, as well as platform achievements and trophies. In a nutshell, they’re designed to help new players LVL UP.

This appears to be something PUBG developers will be working on long-term. In their post they say, “We’ll be adjusting the balance, intelligence, and functionality of bots as time goes on,” and that actions such as leaning, jumping and ledge grab “will be added at a later date.” Predictably, not everyone is happy about this. Streamer sprEEEzy shared a video of his bot interaction, attracting negative feedback from dozens of commentators calling the update “a joke” and that the move represented “the saddest day for PUBG.”

The thing is, such bots in PUBG are not an entirely new concept. While they were available in test servers more recently, they’ve been on the mobile version of the game since at least March 2018. Polygon’s Charlie Hall, for example, shared his experience with bots on PUBG Mobile and ultimately concluded that “a few bots aren’t such a bad compromise.” Nor are they excusive to PUBG — Fortnite introduced them back in September last year.

Getting to grips with any new game can be a frustrating experience, so clearly this update is intended to encourage rookies to stick around rather than getting exasperated and leaving. The question is, will long-time players who put in the hard toil at the beginning of their PUBG journey tolerate this addition? Given the developers’ long-term plans for bots it looks like they’re have no choice if they want to continue playing the game, but that doesn’t mean they won’t take out their frustration on the very players these bots are designed to help.

Today’s update also finally introduces a ranked mode, which lets higher-ability players prove their skill. Competitive games will be limited to 64 players and rotate randomly between the Erangel, Miramar and Sanhok maps. Although Fortnite and Apex Legends both came after PUBG, they have offered ranked playlists for quite a while. It’s about time that PUBG let players properly level up during matches.

Most people might not be in the mood for April Fools’ pranks this year, but PUBG is adding some silliness to its popular game to perk up gamers who are cooped up inside. Fantasy Battle Royale is an optional event that adds four sword-and-sorcery classes and changes up some mechanics. Gamers can choose to play as a Barbarian, Ranger, Wizard or Paladin, and can craft items on the battlefield. That means players will have to strategize around staying alive while simultaneously upgrading their starting gear. The event starts today and will run until April 7th.

This definitely isn’t the first esports event to be affected by COVID-19. Blizzard cancelled Overwatch matches to reduce the risk of the virus spreading. It is one of the more prominent examples, though, and shows that some forms of pro-level competitive gaming can persist even when a health crisis makes it risky to gather a real-world audience.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is the NBA’s reigning MVP, and his contract with the Milwaukee Bucks will end after next season, making him the hottest potential free agent in the league. That also means any conversation he has with affiliates of other teams will be heavily scrutinized since just about anyone would like to have the 7-foot-tall “Freak” on their team for the next few years.

After last night’s Bucks game against Golden State cameras caught Giannis talking to injured Warriors star Stephen Curry, and you can clearly see Curry telling him “C’mon man, let’s do this.” The NBA recently amended its rules to include player conversations in potential violations of “tampering” — rules against trying to influence someone who’s currently under contract with another team. And after Golden State successfully lured Kevin Durant away from the Thunder a few years ago, they’re exactly the kind of team your free-agent superstar tells you not to worry about.

But Yahoo Sports reporter Chris Haynes talked to Steph and says that the conversation wasn’t about basketball at all — he was just exchanging gamertags so that the two could play PUBG, aka PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

There are perks on the ground as well. PUBG Mobile is borrowing a cue from Apex Legends by adding an option to “recall” lost teammates if you can bring their ID cards to communication towers. Vehicle repair packs can keep your UAZ going if you’d rather not abandon it mid-drive. And if you’ve liked the Walking Dead collaboration, you can snag the Rick Grimes skin from now until November 8th.

Payload Mode brings some differentiation to the mobile version of the game — the ‘full’ PUBG is still largely focused on ground combat. It probably won’t convince you to shift your attention to PUBG Mobile, but it could give you a reason to play on your phone beyond simple convenience.

The items will only be available until sometime in early 2020. You won’t want to waste much time picking up these items if you’re a TWD fan. It’s an interesting crossover, though, and an appropriate one when both franchises revolve around survivalists facing unrelenting hordes — it’s just that these hordes are still alive.

Amazon told TechCrunch that it will roll out more mobile gaming content for different titles in an ongoing basis. It already has a list of future partners, including EA, Moonton, Netmarble and Wargaming Mobile, so subscribers can expect to get goodies for those companies’ mobile titles in the future.

Prime members already have access to gaming-related perks, such as free games and a year of Switch Online, via Twitch Prime. It focuses more on PC and console gaming, though, which is why Ethan Evans, the VP for Twitch Prime, said in a statement: “Now, no matter what platform you play on — whether console, PC, or mobile — there are Prime game benefits for you.” He added: “We’re starting with exclusive content for PUBG Mobile, one of the biggest mobile games in the world, and in the coming months, we’ll roll out benefits for some of the most popular mobile games across many favorite genres.”

PUBG Mobile players with Prime subscriptions can claim their free items by going to Amazon’s official page for the campaign using an Android or an iOS device.