'Mobile PUBG' games released in China despite gov't warning

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CGTN has been reporting the success of the popular online game, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). The unfinished last-man-standing game is about to achieve its 20 million sales milestone in less than eight months, as data showed on Steam Spy.

Especially in China, the game's Chinese-speaking fan base is now larger than the US and S. Korean combined.

But the game can only be played on PC (and soon the Xbox console), leaving a huge opportunity for mobile game makers.

PUBG will say "winner winner chicken dinner" to the last survivor of a match. /Web Photo‍

Chinese local companies, including Tencent, NetEase and Kingsoft, have already released their own version of the game for iOS and Android.

Scale down

The games are all tailored to fit mobile gamers' casual style and smartphones' lower computing power.

The maximum player limit is lower than the original game, as well as the graphic effects and battleground size.

Gameplay of Kingsoft's game "Xiaomi Gunfight" /Photo from Xiaomi community

But they didn't touch the core of the game: rules, which is the main reason behind PUBG's fast sale.

In addition to players, the online streamers have also joined the spread of the mobile last-man-standing genre, which they also call Battle Royale.

Lots of gamers hailed as they are freed from PCs to enjoy the genre.

But other players are criticizing the mobile versions, as the characters in the games are hard to control with a touchscreen.

Government disapproval

As the company is busy with its strategy for mobile devices, the Chinese government has stated that it does not agree with the genre.

The administration of video games said it stood against Battle Royale as the style promotes players simply killing each other, which does not go with the core value of Chinese society.

The disapproval came just one day before Kingsoft's game release, setting the company in an awkward situation.

However, the game was released as planned, with the "Battle Royale mode" changed to "training mode," and "kill" changed to "eliminate."

NetEase also promised to modify its game on its official website.

PUBG producer "not claiming ownership"

There are also companies outside China that are digging gold from the PUBG mine.

The Grand Battle Royale is a game made for Android that features the same mechanism, but with blocky graphics that can run fluently on smartphones.

Grand Battle Royale's graphics /Web Photo

Although these games are similar to PUBG, the maker of the PC original said it's OK to make other games of this genre.

"We are not claiming any kind of ownership over the game mode or genre itself," said Kim Chang-han, VP and executive producer of the PUBG owner Bluehole.

But the company did raise some issues with Epic Game in September, whose game Fortnite had no license to include the Battle Royale genre.

Fortnite also features the Battle Royale genre. /Web Photo

Kim said Bluehole is also researching other games to see if they're any too similar to PUBG.

The battle between the developers on "mobile PUBG" has turned out to be a bigger PUBG match. But who will be the last one standing? We will have to wait and see.