India-developed cross-platform battle royale game Indus has surpassed 1.5m registrations, with a fourth playtest also announced to further refine its esports features.
Indus, developed by SuperGaming – who also created highly popular FPS MaskGun – is a cross-platform battle royale title on PC, consoles and mobile, with pre-registration open on Google Play. SuperGaming have made their Indian origins and the inclusion of special events for major dates in the Indian calendar – such as Diwali – a major selling point for their target-market. The title looks set to fill a prominent gap in battle royale titles in the Indian mobile game market following the shuttering of titles such as BGMI.
CEO and co-founder of SuperGaming, Roby John, commented on the progress of the game so far “We’re thankful for the community’s response to Indus with over 1.5 million pre-registrations,” he said.
“Since our last playtest in Surat, we’ve had a lot of questions regarding competitive play as well as features like spectator mode. With Indus’ core gameplay in place, this is the first time we’ll be showing our early esports features. Now is a good time for us to add necessary options and refine them to make Indus esports ready.”
India-made
The lack of battle royale titles for the Indian mobile market in particular can be attributed to a rocky period for PUBG publisher Krafton. 2020 saw PUBG Mobile pulled from storefronts in India, leading to the creation of bespoke title BGMI (BattleGrounds Mobile India). BGMI would also be pulled from storefronts however, with many speculating the legal issues it faced from the Indian government were a result of tensions with China, and the fact that Krafton worked closely with Chinese tech giant Tencent and were caught up in legislative backlash.
But, Indus may represent a major success story if it proves to resonate with players, being off to a good start already with a huge number of pre-registrations and multiple playtests sure to push that amount even higher. And while 1.5m is a relatively small number in comparison to the overall size of India’s massive mobile playerbase, it’s still a number many other developers would be proud of. With the fourth playtest underway and dreams of esports fame already in place, SuperGaming may have a bonafide Indian-made hit on their hands.