India’s ban on mobile apps with a Chinese connection spawned replicas by the dozen, as we have reported in the past. However, nCore Games, the Bangalore-based game developer says its new multiplayer mobile game FAU-G (Fearless and United: Guards) isn’t a response to the federal government’s ban of PUBG and 117 other games.
For starters, the company claims that FAU-G was in the works as early as May 2020 and will launch within a month’s time. Also, unlike PUBG, where players scout for weapons and kill each other, their game associates players with major military events of India. The first episode would replicate India’s recent clash with Chinese army at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh.
While PUBG mobile has been banned in India, the game is still available on the PCs. This is so because Tencent Holdings is connected with the mobile version of the game, which was actually developed by a South Korean gaming company Bluehole.
A report in the Indian Express quotes nCore co-founder Vishal Gondal as saying that the ban on PUBG was coincidental and that the nCore team had been working on FAU-G since May while preparing for a launch in October. In fact, it was part of three games that they were working on, of which one is a cricket game and the other associated with music.
It’s not just FAU-G
He further revealed that the music game would be out in September as would the cricket game, which may coincide with the IPL, India’s highly popular franchise cricket tournament. This year’s edition is being played from the 19th of September in the UAE, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gondal says nCore’s decision to focus on these games began several months earlier and was based on the misplaced belief that Indian game developers cannot produce quality games. He says that the company is out to prove that this was not so and Indian games can compete with the global brands and are capable of developing games better than PUBG.
Earlier this year, Quentin Staes-Polet, general manager at Epic Games and in-charge of India and southeast Asia had said that the gaming market continues to be nascent with the developer community yet to discover the gaming behaviour of enthusiasts in this part of the world.
What do we know about FAU-G?
The nCore team said their first episode on FAU-G would aim to educate players about the crucial military incidents of the country and mirror the actual one at Galwan Valley on June 15 this year that saw heightened tensions between India and China. The company also said that 20 percent of all revenues from the game would be donated to the Bharat Ke Veer trust.
Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar has actively campaigned for contributions to this charity initiated by India’s ministry of Internal Affairs for providing monetary relief to Bravehearts of the Indian defence forces and paramilitary forces. The actor also volunteered to mentor the mobile game FAU-G as parts of his charity efforts.
At this point in time, all we know is that the new game would provide players with a third-person shooting experience. Watch this space as we will update you with more information as and when they become available.
(via) The Indian Express