Krafton, developers of PUBG Mobile and BGMI (BattleGrounds Mobile India) are set to bring Road to Valor: Empires exclusively to the Indian market. The title fills the void left by the banning of previous hit (and tailor-made India-only exclusive) BattleGrounds Mobile India – a game that Krafton are working hard to have ‘unbanned’.
The new game is a real-time strategy title where players take control of a variety of different civilisations from throughout history, battling it out with other players to see who comes out on top. Krafton’s new version will be aimed specifically at the Indian mobile market with Hindi language support, starter-packs and other unique features for the Indian version of the game.
BGMI was previously delisted in India due to privacy concerns, which many believed were part of tit for tat regulatory reprisals by Indian regulators against Chinese-connected game companies. The ban has proved to be a tough blow to take for Krafton, even as the company weathers the storm globally with other mobile and console releases.
Location, location, location
Krafton is clearly committed to the Indian mobile market judging by this move. Although with the Indian market being a rapidly growing, lucrative and populous sector, it’s no surprise that Krafton has no intention of winding down its operations even with the rough regulatory atmosphere. The hope is clearly that a new game such as Road to Valor will fly under the radar without the big name notoriety that came with PUBG, but will still appeal enough to the market to find success.
There are also plans for Road to Valor to expand its language support beyond Hindi to many of the other local languages spoken in India. As a diverse and multilingual country, with over 22 officially recognised languages and many more spoken locally, these efforts are an important reminder of just how vital language support can be.
