Tencent Has Released A Patriotic Game In China Instead Of PUBG Mobile

Tencent has shut down the mobile version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (also known as PUBG Mobile) in the Chinese market after the government didn’t approve of the company earning revenues from this game.

According to reports from both the Financial Times and Reuters, Tencent is planning to move its users to another military game called “Elite Force for Peace” or “Heping Jingying” whose theme is about anti-terrorist. That is the reason why the Chinese government has allowed Tencent to make money from it. One analyst referred to it as “a tribute to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.”

With the outstanding game design, PUBG Mobile was first introduced in March 2018. The battle royale game version for the mobile platform has rapidly belonged to the list of most-liked video games. As a piece of evidence, the amount of its players is as high as that of Fortnite players. China Renaissance estimated that there have been about 70 million players only in China, helping Tencent receive the annual revenues between $1.18 billion and $1.48 billion via in-app purchases.

However, the title has come under fire because of its existing cultural and political factors. For a few recent years, the Chinese authorities have seemingly become especially sensitive to the possible violence and addiction caused by video games. The biggest newspaper group in China -- People’s Daily -- considered Honor of Kings, another mobile MOBA game from Tencent, as “poison” in the past.

The Chinese giant has decided to drop the game to avoid spreading hostility and violence from its product. As per Heping Jingying, the new game focuses more on patriotism, peace and reduces the violence inside the military games like PUBG. With Heping Jingying, players will no longer see bleed from the shot characters. In addition, only players aged 16 and higher can play it.

Another reason that makes Tencent not receive a license to earn revenues from PUBG Mobile is due to geopolitics. In the past, Bluehole from South Korea licensed Tencent to develop PUBG Mobile in the Chinese market; however, South Korean products don’t seem to suit the Chinese authorities’ taste. Two years ago, Beijing launched a wave of a boycott of services and products from South Korea. The boycott came after the nation accepted to install THAAD, the missile-defense system produced by the US, along the boundary with North Korea.

However, the change won’t affect Chinese players too much because Tencent plans to enable its players to move all characters to Heping Jingying from PUBG Mobile. According to Reuters, one analyst said the new alternative to PUBG Mobile had a lot of similarities with the old title. According to Cui Chenyu, the games analyst from HIS Markit, “The gameplay, the background, the graphic design and the characters, they’re almost the same.”