Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi called for Aatm Nirbhar Bharat on May 12, 2020. This means self-reliant India and the Indian Prime Minister has made it as one of his major visions for the nation.
Amid this, the border tensions between India and China started on May 5, 2020. The skirmishes between the two sides have reached a peak due to aggression shown from the Chinese initially.
Initially, the diplomatic talks between two sides were expected to solve the issue but it did not succeed. Hence, the citizens of India called for boycotting Chinese products. This was further propelled by Sonam Wangchuk appealing to the public to give up Chinese products.
Many State Governments and Central Government services cancelled the contracts that had Chinese presence. The Indian Government banned 59 Chinese applications including TikTok, UC Browser in an interim order on 23 June. This was done by the Indian Government as part of the tit-for-tat retaliation.
On 2 September, the Indian Government further banned 118 Chinese applications that included famous online multiplayer gaming application PUBG Mobile (Player Unknown’s BattleGrounds) citing the integrity and sovereignty of the country. PUBG Mobile had a lot of Indian subscribers and a void was created in the Indian gaming community.
To fill the void, Bengaluru based nCore Games announced a mobile multiplayer game Fearless and United: Guards (FAU-G) in partnership with Bollywood star Akshay Kumar on September 3. The nCore Games co-founder, Vishal Gondal told Reuters that the expected launch date of the game is slated to be by the end of the month October.
According to Gondal, the game was in works for some months and the PUBG Mobile ban was a coincidence. The co-founder further stated that the game was in development since May and June of this year.
The first level of the game will be based on Galwan Valley. Galwan Valley is the place where the clashes happened between Indian and Chinese soldiers in June this year and it resulted with the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers.
The name FAU-G means soldier. The nCore Games aims to tap into the patriotism of the Indians. They have also announced that 20 per cent of the net revenue from the application will be given to the state-backed trust, Bharat Ke Veer Trust. The trust supports the family of the martyred soldiers.
Akshay Kumar himself being a son of an army officer helped in setting up the trust and also helped with the concept of the game. According to Gondal, it was Akshay Kumar who came up with the name FAU-G. The game is expected to reach 200 million subscribers in a year.
Gondal tweeted that this game was being developed in response to the Prime Minister Modi’s call for Aatm Nirbhar Bharat. Hence, this is the time to show our real strength so let’s join the hands and emerge the patriotism inside us. Let’s become the heroes of real games!!
