According to report by Reuters, The Shares of Chinese gaming and social media powerhouse Tencent fell more than 2% on Thursday after India banned 118 mobile apps, including the firm’s popular videogame PUBG.
The stock traded 2.2% lower at HK$533 in the afternoon, on track to snap two straight sessions of gain.
The list of 118 mostly Chinese apps also includes those from Baidu and Xiaomi’s ShareSave, as India stepped up pressure on Chinese technology firms following a standoff with Beijing at the border.
The Indian government banned 118 Chinese apps on Wednesday for engaging in activities “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”. The govt ban came at a time when there’s considerable tension across borders of India and China after Indian Army’s stand-off along the Line of Actual control in eastern Ladakh with Chinese troops.
PUBG Mobile not only has a huge fanbase but also a growing esports scene in the country. With mobile esports on the rise, PUBG Mobile leads the charts in India with very high viewership, big prize pools and even excellent organizations flourishing this industry. PUBG Mobile gave rise to prominent streamers like Scout, Dynamo and Mortal in India.
This ban is a huge shocker for casual players as well as the professional players who are currently grinding on their way to lift the trophy. To those who don’t know, esports industry related to PUBG Mobile was the biggest in India, bringing in massive prize pools like ₹50 lakh in PMIS and dominant teams like Orange Rock reaching very close to becoming world champions for this title. The ban will drastically affect everybody related to this game and it remain a question if Tencent, the parent company of PUBG Mobile, will take any action regarding this matter or not.
Valorant’s newest patch 1.07 introduced a plethora of changes to the game. From long-awaited Killjoy and Sage nerfs to a quality of life ‘Match Remake’ feature, the latest patch had it all. While several small underlying bugs were fixed in this patch, it seems like some rather major bugs managed to slip past the devs and made their way into the game.
The bugs were primarily centered around the enigmatic agent Omen and allowed the player to teleport through spawn barriers and even become invulnerable. The community was quick to pick up on this bug and posts began to flood social media platforms showcasing it in-game.
Riot was swift to take action on this bug as they deployed a hotfix addressing the issues shortly after. Riot claimed to have fixed the invulnerability issue along with Omen breaching past barriers through a series of updates.
We're deploying a hotfix to 1.07 regions (NA/BR/LATAM) for the Omen teleporting-through-barriers bug. Fixed the immortal Omen (health, not rank) bug last night. If all is well, we'll ship this stable patch to APAC/OCE regions this afternoon and EU/TR/CIS regions tonight (PT time)
However, it seems like the bug had other plans. While the invulnerability glitch was indeed fixed, instances of Omen players teleporting through spawn barriers continued to surface up on social media.
Hours after the initial hotfix was introduced, Riot tweeted out another response to the situation, announcing that they’re temporarily disabling Omen unless they find a “real fix” for the bug.
“What we thought was a map bug for Omen teleporting past the spawn barriers… is actually an issue with Omen,” Riot said. “We’re disabling him until we have a real fix. Which is hopefully tomorrow.”
What we thought was a map bug for Omen teleporting past the spawn barriers… is actually an issue with Omen, so we're disabling him until we have a _real_ fix. Which is hopefully tomorrow.
For the time being, it appears like Omen pickers have to find themselves a new agent to play. You may also try unlocking some other agents in the game to spice your gameplay up, or you can always listen to Omen’s Spotify playlist while waiting for him to return.
Natus Vincere legend Sergey ‘starix’ Ischuk has sensationally questioned the integrity of Valve and Fnatic star Robin ‘flusha’ Ronquist. The CIS veteran has claimed that Valve hid information of flusha cheating in order to protect their own image in a post on popular Russian platform Vk. One has to keep in consideration that this is starix’s own opinion and that he has not produced any factual evidence of the same as of yet.
However, the integrity of the competitive scene has already come into question after coaches of prominent teams miBr, Heroic and Hard Legion were handed bans for using an exploit to gain crucial information in an unethical manner.
The bug exploit was recently patched by Valve. But, recent exposes have shined light on the coach bug, explaining that it was a part of the game since 2016.
The bans handed out are for recent infractions and only refer to ESL Pro Tour events, with Valve yet to have their say on the matter. One has to only wonder how deep in the trenches, the csgo scene will fall if experts start observing for the exploit for major games from 2016.
Starix had this to say about the probability of Valve hiding incriminating evidence against Flusha.
“I don’t even want to touch the subject flusha, which in my opinion, was found with LAN cheats by Valve, but the same did not want to officially admit, since he won two Majors and that would end the game – and with herself. I don’t understand Valve’s policy, to take different breaks, since it was the same thing? It doesn’t make sense (laughs) .”
As far as Flusha is concerned, questions on his integrity have long been thrown into the public eye. The Swede has been one of the few players that has constantly been suspected to be cheating by fans and neutrals in the public domain, thanks to his wondrous highlights.
The Natus Vincere legend, who is currently without a team, also highlighted the need to make players culpable in the given scenario, wherein Nicolai ‘HUNDEN’ Peterson and Aleksandr ‘MechanoGun’ Bogatiryev were handed bans.
This follows the same train of thought as many players, pundits and other stakeholders in the csgo community, who have iterated that it was impossible for players to not notice the oddities of a coach’s calls and remain aloof for the extended period when the exploit was used by their coach.
The csgo community cannot seem to be able to catch a break these days. Valorant has started eroding the player base quite a bit, with prominent stars now making the switch. Add to that the coach bug exploit drama and now the resurfacing of the Flusha accusations; it is imperative that Valve now takes major steps towards improving the status of the scene; lest it becomes as deserted up top as the Dota2 scene has become in the recent months.
Indian Government nailed the future of PUBG Mobile in India by invoking a sudden yet expected ban. The news of PUBG ban in India spread like a wildfire among communities. PUBG Mobile is a rather, famous game in India, not just among gamers, but influencers too have tried their luck and succeeded.
PUBG Mobile and several other Chinese originated apps have been under the scanner of the Indian Government on account of accusations of data mining and spying on its users. Thus, Indian government had earlier released a list of banned applications which included TikTok.
Indo-China Relations: PUBG Banned in India
On the cover image of this article, you’ll spot Dr. S. Jaishankar, who’s the Union Minister of External Affairs, in-charge of keeping the diplomatic dialogue with the Chinese counterpart. The MoEA had strongly warned China of actions and consequences in case they didn’t pay heed to the growing tensions between the two nuclear-powered Asian countries.
Close to 750 million people play PUBG Mobile across the globe, where the number is close to 170+ million in India alone. The South Korean game garnered attention soon after it signed a right-use deal with China’s tech giant Tencent to publish a Mobile port of the game.
PUBG Mobile has stayed into the crosshairs of the Indian government authorities for quite sometime now. It all started when the Chinese Military breached bilateral border protocols back in the month of May. The Ministry of External Affairs in India did serve notices and communications to the Chinese counterpart on their violation, but it didn’t sought resolution.
The controversy got stirred up after Chinese Military put up another adventurism along the Indian state of Ladakh, which shares border in Pangong Tso Lake. The Indian government led a strong diplomatic response to the provocation, which the Chinese government refused to acknowledge. Thus, a few hours ago, the government announced that it was invoking Section 69A of Information & Technology Act to protect the ‘sovereignty and Integrity of India’ and is banning several Chinese applications which included, PUBG.
Ownership of PUBG Mobile
Despite the game being originally developed by BlueHole Corporation of South Korea, the Mobile port of PUBG is developed and published by the Chinese company Tencent Games. Which makes the ownership of the game into the hands of the Chinese organization. Not just this, the game has previously been under scanner multiple times on account of security breaches and tracking the location of its users.
PUBG Mobile might be among India’s fastest growing gaming title, but the government is in no mood to look at the other side when it comes to national security. Not just India, United States too, have on several occasions called out for PUBG Mobile’s tracking of its users ‘unauthorized.’
United States president Donald Trump have earlier put on a strategic ban on Tencent Holdings, which, directly operates PUBG Mobile. Although, no certainty to ban PUBG Mobile was ever made public.
Not the first ban in India
This is not the first time PUBG has been banned in India. Previously, categorical bans were issued by multiple state governments which charged the game for promoting extremely violent activities.
Other countries which are hovering restrictions on PUBG Mobile
Multiple countries including China themselves (yes!) have banned PUBG Mobile or parts of it. The reasons of the ban could vary depending upon the issues the countries are dealing with somehow the administrations are finding solace in banning the famous mobile game.
Before India, Pakistan resorted to ban the Mobile shooter for promoting violence and being addictive in nature, but later lifted the ban. The list of countries which banned PUBG:
India
Pakistan
China
Jordan
Iraq
Nepal
Most of the countries quickly lifted the ban after PUBG Corporation & Tencent did the necessary adjustments to the game.
Moreover, not many would know that the country where PUBG Mobile was originated, China, had also banned the game due to the nature of violence and graphic in the game. Tencent & BlueHole Corp., later updated the game with new color function for the bloodshed to fit the audience and the administration’s policies.
India has banned PUBG Mobile with 117 other apps and the prominent PUBG Mobile streamers of India like Mortal and Scout were quick to react to this situation. Both of them came live as soon as the news started to spread like a wildfire. They addressed their audience regarding this issue and made few announcements regarding their future.
Scout and Mortal came live and instantly reacted to the chat spamming about the ban and calmed their audience down. Further they both stated that national security is above everything and both of them respect the decision and will not play PUBG Mobile until it gets unbanned or any official announcement is made regarding this matter.
Mortal and his announcements
Mortal came live and discussed about a lot of things with his partner and friend 8bit Thug alongside his viewers. The first thing he did was to address everybody about this ban and calming his audience down. Later, he goes on to reveal that he has big plans for his future and even if this is a big setback, he will rise again.
Mortal tells that PUBG Mobile ban only permits him to focus on his streaming career more and he will stream a variety of games in near future. He goes on to ask his audience about the games they would like to watch and then made a list about various games, from PC to mobile titles, that he will play on his stream. He also announced that he will play solo games like story mode games in the morning stream and also stream other multiplayer games including CSGO and Valorant in his regular night streams.
Revealing about his competitive career, he told that everything is on hold for now and he will enter competitive esports again if PUBG Mobile is unbanned or will potentially play Fall Guys competitively in the future.
Scout reveals his plans
Scout also started his stream in a very crucial time and guided people about the things regarding this ban. He first addressed why the ban is imposed on PUBG Mobile and went on to clarify that a nation is above everything and hence he will move on to different games if the ban is here to stay.
Scout also shared that he has downloaded Call of Duty Mobile and Free: Fire and will grind there if necessary. Scout is well-known to already stream various games from a long time. He plays various story-mode games after his regular PUBG Mobile night stream and he will continue to bring fresh content for his viewers. He already kept his word and instantly started playing VALORANT and this time, explained his audience about this game so the people unfamiliar with the game can also enjoy it.
Amid the escalating tension between India and China, the Indian Government had recently banned 118 Chinese apps which had gained an insane amount of popularity in India. The ban had included well known apps like PUBG Mobile, PUBG Mobile Lite, Baidu, Tencent Weiyun.
According to the press release, the apps are blocked as they are “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defense of India and security of state and public order.”
Official Press Release by the Centre:
“The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India invoking it’s power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 118 mobile apps (see Appendix) since in view of information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India. The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs has also sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these malicious apps.. Likewise, there have been similar bipartisan concerns, flagged by various public representatives, both outside and inside the Parliament of India. There has been a strong chorus in the public space to take strict action against Apps that harm India’s sovereignty as well as the privacy of our citizens.
On the basis of these and upon receiving of recent credible inputs that information posted, permissions sought, functionality embedded as well as data harvesting practices of above-stated Apps raise serious concerns that these Apps collect and share data in surreptitious manner and compromise personal data and information of users that can have a severe threat to security of the State.
In the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India and security of the State. And using the sovereign powers, the Government of India has decided to block the usage of certain Apps, used in both mobile and non-mobile Internet-enabled devices. These apps are listed in the attached appendix.
This move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace.”
The mobile apps were accused of stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have location outside of India. The compilation of this data is hostile to national security and defence of India, according to the report.
PUBG Mobile is the most famous and trending game in India and it was rumoured to be banned sooner or later. The game evaded first two bans but could not escape third time. PUBG Mobile recently updated it’s privacy policy towards Indian players and made it very clear that the data was stored on local servers in India. Even after taking such drastic measures, the game still got banned along with other prominent title like Arena of Valour.
PUBG Mobile not only has a huge fanbase but also a growing esports scene in the country. With mobile esports on the rise, PUBG Mobile leads the charts in India with very high viewership, big prize pools and even excellent organizations flourishing this industry. PUBG Mobile gave rise to prominent streamers like Scout, Dynamo and Mortal in India.
This ban is a huge shocker for casual players as well as the professional players who are currently grinding on their way to lift the trophy. To those who don’t know, esports industry related to PUBG Mobile was the biggest in India, bringing in massive prize pools like ₹50 lakh in PMIS and dominant teams like Orange Rock reaching very close to becoming world champions for this title. The ban will drastically affect everybody related to this game and it remain a question if Tencent, the parent company of PUBG Mobile, will take any action regarding this matter or not.
Bronny James, the eldest son of LeBron James, has joined the ranks of FaZe Clan, one of the biggest esports and gaming organization in the world.
Bronny James is a 15 year old highschool basketball recruit and ranks 23rd in ESPN’s class of 2023 basketball recruit rankings. He is also a big name on streaming platform Twitch with more than 330,000 followers.
FaZe clan announced Bronny James’ entry into their ranks on their twitter handle, posting a short clip of him dominating in the basketball court along with Fortnite and Call of Duty.
FaZe Clan is certainly increasing roster by signing various sports personalities which is not seen by many other organisations. Alongside Bronny, various other sports athletes like Ben Simmons and Juju Smith joined FaZe. Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons joined FaZe as content creator under the name ‘FaZe Simmo’ and Juju Smith-Schuster announced a partnership with Faze Clan on Twitter.
FaZe Clan brings in a big crossover of esports and sports industry by signing such big names. TSM made a similar move recently by signing a chess prodigy named Hikaru to acquire their first chess player.
Fall Guys is one of the biggest hits among the games launched in 2020. A multiplayer video game which is apparently a battle royale, has taken over other popular games on Twitch and many famous streamers are seen playing this game. With a quirky play style and fun ingame mechanics, this game is a unique but still has same old cheating problem.
Even if the number of hackers are reduced, if you still come across any cheater and have to report them, follow this simple guide to manually report any player:
Insert relevant details and in ‘Type of issue’ section, select “cheater report”.
Select the type of platform and enter your Support ID which required to solve most of the issues.
In the description box, you can describe any specific hack or reliable information regarding this issue.
The last box is attachments section under which if you have any VODs or screenshots, you can upload them as evidence.
By following these simple steps, you can easily help the developers eradicate hackers in Fall Guys and enjoy your game in bliss, without any cheater ruining the enjoyable experience of this fun game.
Now you can decorate your yards with Joe Biden campaign signs.
Joe Biden/kamala Harris campaign unveiled four signs on Tuesday which can be download by using QR Codes: Team Joe logo, Joe Pride logo, an official Biden-Harris logo and an image of aviator sunglasses, Biden’s campaign staff told McClatchy News.
“Animal Crossing is a dynamic, diverse, and powerful platform that brings communities together from across the world,” Christian Tom, director of digital partnerships for the Biden campaign, said in a statement. “It is an exciting new opportunity for our campaign to engage and connect Biden-Harris supporters as they build and decorate their islands.”
This is not the first time a presidential candidate has used a video game to try and reach voters. In 2016, Hillary Clinton held an event at a Pokéstop in Ohio.
“Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” a family friendly Nintendo video game, has broken records since its release on March 20, selling 11 million copies by the end of the month, The Guardian reported.
Animal Crossing was first released in Japan in 2001 and in North America in 2002, according to AZCentral. More than 30 million copies of the game have been sold since its release and players can build their own houses, do landscaping and interact with animals.
The long wait is over! Today, NVIDIA has finally unveiled their new series of GPUs today, and it will mark the start to the “future of gaming”, according to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. The much-anticipated RTX 30 series GPUs will include GeForce RTX 3070, the GeForce RTX 3080, and the RTX 3090 Founders Edition. This series will deliver up to 2x the performance and 1.9x the power efficiency over the previous generation GPUs.
“Today’s launch of NVIDIA Ampere GPUs is a giant step into the future,” Huang said. “The work of thousands of engineering years, the GeForce RTX 30 Series delivers our greatest generational leap ever. NVIDIA RTX fuses programmable shading, ray tracing and AI for developers to create entirely new worlds. Twenty years from now, we’ll look back and realize that the future of gaming started here.”
RTX 3070
According to NVIDIA, the RTX 3070 will clock in at about 60 percent faster than the previous generations RTX 2070 and will come with 8 GB of GDDR6 onboard memory. The 3070, which will be starting at $499, will be powerful enough to support 4K and 1440P monitors. The GPU is set to hit the market in October 2020.
RTX 3080
The RTX 3080 was defined to be the “flagship” card of the series by Huang, who claimed that it’ll deliver “twice the performance of [RTX] 2080 at the same price.” The 3080 will rock 10 GB of GDDR6X onboard memory and will be able to consistently stream 4K display at 60 frames per second. The GPU will be priced starting from $699 and will be available for purchase from September 17th.
RTX 3090
The RTX 3090, which has been referred to as the “BFGPU” – Big Ferocious GPU – will be priced at $1,499. It will come with a three-slot, dual-axial, flow-through design which will make it 10x quieter than the TITAN RTX and keep the GPU temperatures cooler by up to 30 degrees. The RTX 3090 will have a whopping 24 gigs of GDDR6X video memory and will be 50% faster than the TITAN RTX. It will be able to support 60 FPS in 8K resolution across games, according to NVIDIA.
New Features
The new series of GPUs will also bring multiple new features aimed at gamers and streamers. The features include NVIDIA RTX, NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima, NVIDIA Broadcast and NVIDIA Reflex.
NVIDIA RTX – Real-time ray tracing technology which enhances the graphics of games by improving 3D rendering.
NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima – Users will be able to take models from in-game characters and use their webcam and NVIDIA’s AI to generate “film-quality” cinematic animations for the characters.
NVIDIA Broadcast – Broadcast is a new feature dedicated towards streamers, who will be able to enhance their microphone and webcam quality through NVIDIA’s AI. Users will also be able to eliminate background noises and generate background effects while streaming.
NVIDIA Reflex – Reflex will minimise the latency while playing competitive video games like Fortnite and Valorant. NVIDIA has claimed that this new feature will be able to reduce latency by up to 50%.
