PUBG Mobile is India's favorite shooter. The game's immense popularity in the country might be under threat though. The release of FAU-G later this month promises to give PUBG Mobile a run for its money. Whether it can dethrone it is yet to be seen.
Fearless and United Guards, or FAU-G, is an upcoming mobile multiplayer action game developed and published by India's very own nCore Games. The fact it's a home product plays a huge role in marketing, which is understandable in a country of over 1.2 billion people.
What will you do when they come? We will hold our ground & fight back, because we are Fearless. United. Unstoppable FAU:G! Witness the anthem FAU:G! #FAUG #nCore_GamesPre-register now https://t.co/4TXd1F7g7JLaunch 26/1@vishalgondal @akshaykumar @dayanidhimg pic.twitter.com/VGpBZ3HaOS
— nCORE Games (@nCore_games) January 3, 2021
The marketing goes beyond gaming with Bollywood star Akshay Kumar being the official brand ambassador of the title. And it worked! The Indian pre-registration record was broken within 24 hours once it was announced at the beginning of December 2020. That's with numerous delays already in the back catalog of FAU-G.
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The game was initially expected in October and then somewhere up till the end of 2020, but a proper release date came after we turned the calendar. The new Indian mobile FPS is supposed to take off on January 26, 2021. Though nCore Games have tried to distance themselves from PUBG Mobile, this is hard to do.
Player Unknown's Battlegrounds was hit hard by the Indian government's attempt to limit Chinese apps' influence on home territory. PUBG Mobile, being published in India by Chinese company TenCent, was among the banned applications. India is the game's largest market, so naturally, PUBG Corp. took matters seriously and worked PUBG Mobile back on the Indian market.
However.
With a home-developed action game on the way and India's politics of home product use influenced by their disputes with China, PUBG Mobile might find out that politics are indeed part of games, if not in the way we usually talk about the subject.
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