PUBG Mobile did not make it to China and was replaced by a new "less violent" game called "Game for Peace." Yeah, the game that has enemy waving goodbye you when they die and almost no blood.
It's still a typical battle royale game the same as PUBG Mobile, just with some alternation added by Tencent to grasp the giant market of 70 million players in China. As a result, Game of Peace took place of PUBG Mobile and filled the gap. It earned $14 million in the first 3 days after launched.
Of course, this is not the first case in China where games are altered in one way or another to fit the policy. Here are some of the big titles that have changed some details to make their way into China.
Final Fantasy XV
The latest Final Fantasy game of the Final Fantasy franchise made by Square Enix had to compromise some of its character models to be allowed in China. Characters can't reveal too much skin or being a skeleton in the game, so Shiva was modified to have more clothes and a yellow skin tone like Asian.
The skeleton was changed into a goblin instead and Lich (an enemy NPC) have the face on his chest removed. Some changes were even about the world in-game like Noctis'hometown Lucis, where people worship the grim reaper, was changed to the black theme. Also, the camera is locked when viewing the character model.
Rainbow Six Siege
Sexual contents and gambling are also not allowed in China, which is why Ubisoft chose to make some change to aesthetic figures in their game just to get into China. Of course, fans around the world were enraged about these changes and Ubisoft was forced to revert it. Although the game will never be accepted in China, at least, it still has a loyal fanbase around the world.
CS:GO
3 years ago, Valve released a CS:GO version exclusive for China called CS:GO Perfect World. Characters have black blood color with no corpses and a lot of skins were remade, especially the ones with skull details. Every product that shows skull or blood has to be replaced before entering China, according to the censorship rule.
All of the function like CS:GO Display Team Tags In Death Notice, Profile Sharing, Friends Lobby Default Permissions, Steam Group Clan Tag weren't allowed. Players haven't reached the age of 18 will be restricted to play more than two hours before being forced to log off due to the Anti-Addiction System.
World Of Warcraft
Imagine a fantasy world without blood, bones, skulls or gore. That would be the Chinese version of WOW. There are no skeletons, only straw man. Skulls were replaced by grains of sand. Naked chest or human organs were either changed or removed. The regulation was so strict that those piles of bones in crypts turned to stones and chunks of meat turned to pieces of bread.
DMC V
One of the signature game of Capcom, Devil May Cry:V had to censor some of its scenes because of Sony's restrictions. For example, the scene with Trish and a female character was added a flare effect to hide the nudity.
It was not a very unreasonable demand though. With the exploding growth of videos game, it's better to follow those rule and take advantage of them to access new markets.