Tencent swaps blockbuster PUBG for Game for Peace in China

World
Europe

Tencent Holdings Ltd has pulled the plug on the test version of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" (PUBG) in China after failing to secure commercial licenses for the global best-selling video game.

PUBG has been unable to bring in any revenue in China because it wasn't approved by the State Administration of Press and Publication (SAPP).

The Chinese Internet giant sent a message to the game players on Wednesday announcing the game was "removed for maintenance."

According to Data consultancy Questmobile, PUBG had 186 million monthly active users (MAU) in China in February.

Industry insiders had estimated the Chinese Internet giant could rake in one billion U.S. dollars in revenue after getting the green light to cash in on the game.

The South Korean-made PUBG was named by global game distributor Steam as one of its highest-grossing titles of 2018, pulling in more than 65 million U.S. dollars in March outside China according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.

On the same day PUBG was pulled out, Tencent rolled out a similar game for which it received monetization approval. "Game for Peace" closely mimics PUBG's gameplay, offers similar interface and functions. PBUG users can pull their profiles and in-app purchases to the new game as they switch to "Game for Peace."

Tencent's shares were up by as much as 3.7 percent, their biggest intraday climb in about two months.

"Game for Peace" is the first game to feature Tencent's most recent update to its anti-addiction system, which only allows users 16 and older to play and limits play time for those under 18 to two hours.

The hashtag "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is gone" was trending on Chinese online platform Weibo, amassing 510 million views and 127,000 posts as of Wednesday afternoon. Some users complained about the abrupt shutdown of the game, while others expressed concerns about future in-game purchases.

"Game for Peace" claims to be a "tribute to warriors who defend the territorial air space of China." A screenshot from the game's beta shows a recruitment notice for China's air force on the game's loading screen.

(With input from Reuters)