Does this sentence "This is the first time I'm playing this game with you" sound unnatural?

This is the first time I'm playing this game with you

I was given two answers, one of which from an American native speaker of English says there's nothing wrong and it sounds natural and it's the same thing in meaning as "This is the first time playing this game with you", and the other of which from a British native speaker of English says it sounds plainly wrong and it has to be corrected to "This is the first time I've played this game with you", but interestingly, this British speaker admitted that there is nothing wrong in this sentence "This is the first time playing this game with you".Where the hell is this confusion coming from? I'm totally at a loss to study the way native speakers speak English.I wouldn't think this would be the difference between British English and American English, because I've come across an answer by a different British speaker that the sentence sounds natural.