Bengaluru: On Tuesday, this week, game fighters fought their last fight on their mobiles as the Ministry of Information and Technology announced an immediate ban on 118 additional mobile apps that originate in China, including the crowd favourite Battle Royale mobile game—PUBG.
The ban of these apps was ostensibly over fears revolving around security, surveillance and data privacy of Indian users but in reality, was a pressure tactic to hit the Chinese where it hurts most – their revenue model – and get them to back down at the border with India.
Both the fighters and the revenue earners from the game were left fuming, but there was nothing they could do to fight the good fight. And then, along came a saviour in the form of a new game – FAU-G (Fearless and United- Guards) – developed by a Bengaluru-based mobile game and interactive entertainment company- nCore.
Before the PUBG-era, first-person shooter games were primarily reserved for PC players. As more and more phone companies started producing smartphones with advanced specifications at affordable prices, PUBG was one of the first to monetize its game app by rolling out the battle-royale version for mobile users in 2018. Ever since then, PUBG has consistently impressed its users with its compatibility with lower-end phones, effortless gameplay, and by rolling out newer game modes previously unheard of; a move that only other games could follow suit.
FAU-G is touted as the atmanirbhar replacement of PUBG and was announced soon after the ban on the latter took effect. Promoting the “Made in India” game, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar tweeted from his account announcing his mentorship role in its development.
According to the tweet, the game was developed following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for the nation to be atmanirbhar— aimed at focusing on building world-class Indian products.
FAU-G will be an action game and its purpose is to teach the players about the sacrifices of our soldiers. It also has an altruistic and patriotic purpose in keeping with the current national sentiment – 20% of the net revenue generated will be donated to the Bharat Ke Veer Trust. This Trust was conceptualized by Akshay Kumar and implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs to support the families of India’s Armed forces martyrs.
The veteran actor also said, “For youngsters in India, gaming is becoming an important form of entertainment. With FAU-G, I’m hoping that as they play the game they will learn about the sacrifices of our soldiers and also contribute to the families of the martyrs; and with this, each one of us has the ability to support PM Modi’s vision of Atma Nirbhar.”
The game, that is expected to be released on both Google Play and Apple Store by the end of October, is “based on real scenarios encountered by the Indian Security Forces to deal with both domestic and foreign threats”. Players will be able to join parties limited to five people, collaborate, and unite to defeat the enemies. The first level will be set in the Galwan Valley followed by third-person shooting gameplay in the subsequent updates. The game will also roll out the crowd favourite battle royale mode in later stages.
What makes this game distinct is the sense of nationalism that is attached to the story that is quite unlike PUBG. The latter is a survival game where your greatest enemy is time itself. FAU-G, on the other hand, is the game that has distinct opponents like the popular game CS: GO, where you can either be a counterterrorist or a terrorist.
“The game was conceptualized a year ago and the production started in May 2020,” said Vishal Gondal, the founder and chairman of nCore. He also added that Akshay Kumar has been the creative mentor and helped in the conceptualization of the game. He was the one to come up with the name and encouraged the idea of associating it with the Bharat Ke Veer Trust.
The pandemic has also had its effects on the game’s development and release timeline. “The development of a game like this requires a large team of game designers, level designers, testers, artists, graphic artists, programmers, and engineers. Currently, the challenge is that, due to the pandemic, everyone is working remotely,” Gondal added.
The Company aims to grow the game to the scale and grandeur of global game brands, but promise to keep its roots in the Indian ethos. They also want to transform nCore as a platform to publish games from top global studios for the Indian Market.
But, like everything else, there are murmurs of criticism too. After the release of the game poster, Twitter was baffled at the lack of originality in the conceptualization of the game. Apart from the similarities in the names, the netizens were even more surprised when one Twitter user pointed out that the poster used a stock image, that too of the US Army. The only differentiating factor was the addition of the Indian flag on the soldiers’ uniforms.
As of now, the Bengaluru-headquartered nCore games have no intention of building games set in their home base—Bengaluru. The game kickstarts with the tension brimmed Galwan Valley as the backdrop. Bengaluru hopes to feature soon. Right now, it’s a safe place; so no FAU-G!
