There often is talk of China being the plagiarist of many things, including games. In this instance, China is not. PUBG safely made it onto Chinese shores, became a massive hit, and then, was abruptly taken down.
Just what happened? This happened:
The texts translates to:
Peace Heroes
Courageous People Acting Together | For Peace
Peace Heroes | Great Interest Gathers
With a jaw-dropping “70 million daily active users”, according to The China Renaissance, the game was shattering records and showed no signs of slowing down. In a shocking turn of events, Tencent pulled PUBG mobile from the Chinese market. And surprisingly, there’s been minimal backlash from the Chinese community. If PUBG was pulled in the US, there would undoubtedly be riots on the streets.
via GIPHY and Youtube/Techzamazing
Shots that hit are given green sparks reminiscent of LED lights on my Christmas tree.
When ‘killing’ off an opponent, the text over the enemy’s head translates as “Give Up”.
Instead of keeling over, a ‘dead’ enemy merely kneels, offers his stash on a silver platter, and raises a hand like signaling to a car behind that his bicycle is braking.
The end of the game is displayed as if the players just won the Olympic Games without any bit of blood or violence involved.
The game has been replaced by a propaganda-filled shell of the former blockbuster. Reuters revealed that the game aims to “pay tribute to the blue sky warriors that guard our country’s airspace”. Surprisingly, it’s clear the game appeals to a larger market and apparently it’s working. Analysts predict that the game will get around $1.4 billion in revenue per year.
Some players found PUBG‘s violence and gore offensive, so Tencent re-skinned the game with more mild effects in order to receive “regulatory approval”. The changes include the removal of blood, paintball-feeling guns, and a hilarious death animation where the player waves goodbye. It might seem surprising from places where censorship isn’t normal, but it’s commonplace in China for things to be filtered out.
The texts on this spray paint translates to:
“Don’t shoot!!! Friendly!”
“Game for Peace” seems to be another unfortunate step of censorship and propaganda from the Chinese government, who proceeds to shelter more and more of their users from a free internet.
Other than a lack of blood, the trailer is every bit as violent as the original PUBG – gun flare, dying soldiers, and lots of shooting.
PUBG, Fortnite, Whatever-Game fanatic. Food evangelist. Internet ninja. Friendly communicator. Twitter fan. Zombie fanatic.
