After being denied monetisation in China, PUBG receives a patriotic replacement
After waiting several months for government approval concerning the Chinese monetisation of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Tencent has decided to pull the ‘test version’ of its battle royale shooter.
PUBG currently boasts 70 million daily users in China, making it one of the world’s biggest games. Now, a replacement of the hugely popular title has appeared on smartphones known as “Game of Peace,” boasting a distinctly anti-terrorist theme.
In a statement, Tencent has described Game for Peace as a tactical shooting experience developed internally that “pays tribute to the blue sky warriors that guard our country’s airspace,” making direct reference to the country’s air force.
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They changed PUBG Mobile in China to comply with stricter game violence laws. Now when you 'kill' someone they give you a loot box and wave goodbye and honestly it's just so hilariously wholesome pic.twitter.com/Q5xkrtM0MA
— Svend Joscelyne (@SvendJoscelyne) May 8, 2019
Now, enemies will no longer drop dead in a pool of blood once you fill them with bullets. Instead, they adorably wave goodbye and leave some loot behind as a reward. That’s one way to deal with China’s strict violence laws.
Users on Chinese social network Weibo have described Game for Peace as being very similar to PUBG, carrying over progression or even automatically replacing PUBG on some devices.
“I didn’t expect that once I updated it to Game of Peace it returned me back to the same level. The game changed its name and became very socialist to gain approval,” said one Weibo user.
PUBG isn’t the only victim to China’s strict violence laws in regards to videogames, with other titles such as Battlefield 4 and Hearts of Iron being banned for both graphic imagery and iconography that allegedly distorts the country’s history.
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We wouldn’t expect this version of PUBG to leave China, given the rest of the world isn’t nearly as strict when it comes to approving videogames for a wide release.
For context, China lifted its long-running ban on gaming consoles in 2015, with a small selection of games releasing alongside them. If you’re a huge gamer, consider yourself lucky that we’ve got it so easy.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
