Google blocks Krafton’s battle-royale game in India, cites government ban

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Alphabet Inc’s Google blocked access on Thursday to a popular battle-royale format game from South Korean developer Krafton, citing an order from the Indian government.

Krafton shares slumped more than 9% on the news on Friday, quickly paring losses to trade down 5.7%.

In a statement, the U.S. technology giant said India had ordered that the Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) game be blocked, forcing it to remove the app from its Play Store.

The game’s website showed it had more than 100 million users in India. The block comes after India’s 2020 ban of another Krafton title, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).