PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds aims to roll out its long-awaited vaulting and climbing mechanics this week on test server—however it appears the online battle royale game could now face being banned entirely in China, the game’s biggest region by player population.
That’s according to this Bloomberg report (via Gamesindustry.biz) which suggests the game’s last-person standing, battle to the death-style makeup presents a “deviation” from the country’s “socialist core values and traditional Chinese culture and ethical norms”.
In turn, the Chinese content watchdog reckons PUBG is “not conducive to the physical and mental health of young consumers”.
Loosely translated by Google, here’s the watchdog’s advice to Chinese developers that might echo games such as PUBG: “To this end, I recommend the domestic game companies should not arrange [research and develop], the introduction of such games, do not advocate to test such a way to attract users. At the same time, gaming, live and other platforms should not be such games to provide publicity, promotion and other services.”
Recently, a Chinese Terminator 2 mobile game surfaced that includes a suspiciously familiar battle royale mode. The company responsible, NetEase, works in partnership with Blizzard in operating online games such as Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft 2 in the region.