Tencent Shuts Down PUBG Mobile In China, Replaces It With A "Friendlier" Alternative

PUBG Mobile was officially pulled after failed to gain authorization

Tech goliath Tencent had to pull the extremely famous mobile version of PUBG in China after not being able to gain permission from China’s administration to officially making revenues.

Since 2017, PUBG Mobile version has been under development, which features numerous amendments to the game's amusement sense and violent content, in order to meet China’s strict requirement for releasing. However, the efforts were not enough.

Despite creating a community for around 70 million active players, PUBG Mobile still failed to gain approval for monetization in China – a country with harsh rules about content in video games released in the region. The reason the government refused to put a green light to the game is mainly because of its war-based content.

And when the game can’t make money, it has to be taken down. Tencent obviously understood that, and quickly pulled the trigger.

"The testing phase for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds officially ends on May 8. We thank everyone for the support they have given us so far," a message showed up on the game’s official Weibo account.

And Tencent replaced it with other “China-friendly” version

However, Tencent did not just simply delete everything about the game. Not long after the shutdown, Tencent has brought up another patriotic title, Game for Peace, which seems like a more government-friendly version PUBG Mobile. Game For Peace has received monetization allowance from the government, and was described by the publisher that the game "pays tribute to the blue sky warriors that guard our China's air force”.

Despite Tencent’s statement that the new title is "very different genres of games", it’s affirmed by game analyst Cui Chenyu that it’s “almost exactly the same”. It seems that the only difference is that the alternative contains no gore. This is understandable, given that China has forbidden video games that contain violence and tarnish the country’s image.

In the new game, instead of lying down in the blood (a big no-no), enemies in Game for Peace left a wooden chest, and wave goodbye when they’re killed. Maybe it’s the point that makes Chinese government allow monetization for the game. You can see it in the gameplay below:

Players have found that Tencent allowed them to transfer their data, including their character and in-game-stats, to the new title, making users feel easier to move to the alternative.

Only the PUBG Mobile version for China was brought down. You can still play it with the universal version, which was separately published.