The reason, according to the mufti, is that these games could influence the younger generation to get involved with terrorism and shape their minds to enjoy war and violence.
The call for the ban came after two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand were attacked by several gunmen last Friday, with at least 50 people losing their lives to the act of violence.
Thankfully, the government has no plans (yet) to ban the game, with our Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq going on record to say that 'PUBG' should not be blamed for extremist acts.
If the government does have plans to ban the game (we really hope not, because we don't want to go back to playing congkak), it won't be the first time a video game has been banned in Malaysia.
In fact, we did some research and we found a few video and mobile games that are too raunchy, too hardcore or generally too controversial for us Malaysians to handle. Here are some of them:
#1 Pokemon Go
Yep, you read that right! The mobile game that took over the world almost two years ago was temporarily banned in Malaysia. Back in 2016, a Federal Terriroty Shariah state committee has decided to ban Muslims from catching Pokemons because it "promoted a search for power and deities with certain powers which could lead to gambling". In Kedah, 'Pokemon Go' was also declared haram due to its potential to "jeopardise faith" in Islam.
Of course, nothing came to fruition in the end because they received a major backlash on social media and Malaysians continue to play 'Pokemon Go' till this day. There's nothing catching a Pikachu can't fix, right?
#2 Fight Of Gods
OK lah, this one we would have to agree lah, because this game is over the top unnecessary. Like its name suggests, 'Fight Of Gods' is a 'Mortal Kombat'-like fighting game involving - yep, you guessed it! - religious deities such as Buddha and Jesus. When the game was released in 2017, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was quick to ban the entire Steam store (the digital marketplace to buy video games on PC), not just the game alone.
A game about gods fighting each other? It's not going to fly here, bro. A day after the ban, video game publisher Valve has agreed to remove the game from the local Steam store and in return, MCMC unbanned Steam. Win-win situation.
#3 Dante's Inferno
When you have a game about fighting your way through the nine Circles of Hell to rescue a damsel in distress from the grasp of Satan, you know it's definitely going to get banned. The game was promptly banned by the Jabatan Agama Islam (JAIS) when it was released in February 2010. According to JAIS, the game contained offensive depictions of cruelty, hellish visions and sexuality, content that was against the Sharia law.
Of course, that didn't stop the game from appearing at Sungai Wang Plaza, though.
#4 Postal 2
If you've played or heard about 'Postal 2', you would agree that this game is really, really bad. The game is essentially a murder simulator, and the objective is simple: kill and murder everything and anything in sight in the most horrible way possible, either by slicing their heads off, shooting them non-stop or setting them on fire. So, it was only natural for Malaysia to ban the game in 2007 for its "very high impact violence and offensive depictions of cruelty".
Other countries that also banned 'Postal 2': Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany and temperoraily, Sweden.